The onmyouji
by Lastu
Summary: An onmyouji joins the Shinsengumi on his master's orders. He came to investigate the rasetsu, but ends up finding much more. Written from multiple view points. Will probably take forever to finish.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: My first attempt at writing, writing in English and writing a fan fic. This is a bit of an alternative Universe thing, since there are some extra things, but other than that I am trying to stick to the anime's main story line also I should warn that I am absolutely hopeless about Japanese culture. I decided to start before the anime starts, in August 1863, but as I learned about the games that act as a prequel to this series only way after starting to write these they get a little bit less attention. Also the rating is something that I was horribly unsure about, now it is just mostly slightly gory things, but I started to feel oddly citrusy, but we'll have to see about that. Hope you enjoy! _

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan._

Chapter 1. New Members

The air was unusually heavy with humidity even though it was already the end of August. The previous day had been almost painfully hot and it seemed that the day that was peeking over the horizon was going to be just as horrid. Because of the unbearable weather it seemed that everyone tried to exert themselves as little as possible and it was common for people to travel between the short hours after the sun set and midnight or very early in the morning before the sun had the opportunity to rise too high on the sky. It was maybe because of this that one of the younger members of the Shinsengumi guarding the gate to the headquarters was not so surprised when a traveler appeared at the far end of the road. The night watch had been as boring as one could expect; the Mibu village was sleeping peacefully and the guard was slightly curious about the new comer and decided that he would speak to the man when he would pass the gate. It was always interesting to hear news from the passersby and the guard was truly bored. As he squinted towards the traveler for a moment he thought he saw three dogs, one larger and two smaller ones accompanying him, but as he looked again the animals had disappeared. Probably they were some of the many masterless stray dogs that much like the Shinsengumi had adopted the Mibu village as their home. The young guard forgot quickly about the dogs as the traveler was already at talking distance. He never got the chance though to start the conversation as it was started for him.

"Good morning" the traveler said a bit too cheerfully for it to be so early.

"Good morning!"

"Is this by any chance the Shinsengumi headquarters?" the traveler asked and nodded just very slightly towards the gate.

"Yes, yes it is!" the guard announced proudly, both to be doing his duty as a guard and also because the stranger had called the place the Shinsengumi headquarters instead of the Yagi house where the Mibu wolves stayed.

He then remembered that there were even a sign telling this. It was only temporary though, since as soon as the group had been informed about their new name just a few days ago a sign had been ordered. It had been agreed upon that the Vice-Commander's brother who was recognized for his beautiful calligraphy would write it and now the gate was only waiting to be adorned with the new sign. Instinctively the guard turned slightly to look to his left where the sign would be and as he did this he realized that he was currently standing right in front of the temporary one. He blushed and to cover for his slight feeling of awkwardness he put his mind in to concluding his duty.

"May I inquire what business you have with the Shinsengumi?" He addressed the traveler as sternly as he could, but him being only 15-years of age he didn't manage scariness not nearly as well as the Vice-Commander would have.

"Yes, of course" the traveler said readily and reached to take off the bamboo hat he had been wearing.

The young guard noticed that the hat had a net to protect the wearer from mosquitos and momentarily he felt a tinge of jealousy; one of the worst things about standing in guard was the fact that one did not move and was thus the perfect target for mosquitos. He would have appreciated the hat. While he was still deep in his dark thoughts about the irritating sides of the unavoidable night-time duty the traveler had straightened up and approached him. He was of lean build and taller than the young guard which was a bit unusual and wore his hair tied up into a ponytail. He was wearing a light colored summer yukata and carried with him a longish bag, neither of them in anyway fancy, but still not worn out. He was not armed nor did he have any other signs on him what his social standing might be to the great distress of the young guard. The only thing that stood out was that he was wearing a rosary around his left wrist and his neck.

"I came here to join the Shinsengumi" the traveler said, his voice was calm with a feeling of being self-assured. He spoke very refined and had an Edo-accent.

The young guard was so surprised by this that he could not help himself and he looked up to see the stranger's face. He had a very pleasant face at that, maybe a tiny bit handsome the guard thought, he was probably a nice person, though there were something odd about his eyes. Quickly the guard looked away and returned at the matter at hand. It was odd for people to want to join the Shinsengumi; new recruits did not come often as the group had a rather bad reputation and they did not have much to offer to new members. The Shinsengumi was not even half year old and already Serizawa-sensei and his group had almost entirely managed to destroy their reputation in Kyoto. It was better now with their new name and mission and Matsudaira-sama's support but the fact that the group was practically broke and lived scattered in the Mibu village and that it was so tightly associated with Serizawa did not really help them. The imperial capital was rather hostile towards the pro-Bakufu group. The guard looked up and said slightly wearily.

"If you want to join the Sinsengumi you have to be over 15"

"That won't be a problem. I am 23" the traveler said and now he was actually smiling and did indeed look rather handsome. The guard blushed again.

"You also have to pass a test. It is held in the dojo once a week or so. It is a match or a series of matches fought with the shinai. You have to fight the other applicants or one of the members of the Shinsengumi. But I think you got lucky there are two men who came from Edo yesterday and you will probably face them. I mean it would be more difficult to go against the more experienced members or the captains, right?" the guard said feeling good about himself for being able to give the friendly traveler such good news.

"I am sure it would" the traveler agreed and adjusted the bag on his shoulder and looked towards the horizon at the rising sun "When is the next test going to be held?"

"Two days from now. I could ask for it to be arranged especially for you today, but it is just that everybody's been really busy lately and there are no regular daily practices now because of the heat. Everybody kept fainting from the heat so now we are trying to get used to it. The test is after the practice".

"Very well. Then I will return in two days" The traveler said and tied the hat under his chin and turned to go.

"Ah, no wait! I need your name. You can wait and then officially announce that you want to participate, when everybody wakes up, but if you want I can take your name to Sannan-san. He is in charge of listing new members" the guard offered. He liked the traveler whom he was already thinking of as a new member and wanted to help him to pass the test. He didn't seem like a bushi, probably some younger son of a merchant family who wanted to experience adventures.

"Thank you very much, that would be really helpful" The traveler said and bowed his head slightly "My name is Sekiya Kazumi"

"I am Maeda Hisato. Nice to meet you"

"Nice to meet you too. Thank you again for the help. Then, good bye"

"Good bye Sekiya-san. I will see you in two days!" Hisato yelled and waved.

Even though the month was nearing its end the weather was still agonizingly hot and the Shinsengumi kept having only half day practice and combat exercises. Still the days during which the entrance tests were held managed to collect most of the members not on duty into the makeshift dojo which was situated close to the Yagi house. Hisato like many of the younger members were especially curious to see the matches, since sometimes they were especially tight between equally skilled swordsmen. Today Hisato was more curious than usually. They had a sensational four new applicants and one of them was the traveler he had met. Hisato was sitting with some of his comrades on the floor and waiting. Sannan-san was with the applicants standing at the back wall, most likely explaining them the rules.

"Who is going to be refereeing the matches?" Hisato asked from his neighbors.

"I think it is going to be Okita-sensei. I saw him earlier in the yard. I mean it is about time it is his turn again!" his neighbor said.

He was a few years older than Hisato and belonged to the unit under Harada whereas Hisato was in the third unit and even though there were some competition between the different units the lower ranking members were all rather closely connected spending much time practicing together and sleeping in the same quarters. Hisato looked around and thought that also some members from Serizawa's group had come, but as they lived often in different houses, the Kondo group favoring the Maekawa estate over the Yagi house he did not know the other group's members that well.

Everybody fell obediently silent as the Vice-Commander stepped inside flanked by Okita and Saito. The three went to sit at the back wall. Also Sannan sat with the other Shinsengumi executives and the applicants seated themselves on the remaining free wall.

"I am Okita Souji of the Shinsengumi and I will be refereeing the matches between the applicants" Okita said from his seat and two of the applicants rose from their seats and faced each other in the middle of the floor.

Usually he did not bother to take part in every practice session or even to come to see all the tests, but today Hijikata had given in on Souji's endless pleading and came with the two captains to see the matches. He tended to trust his two best swordsmen and their judgment when it came to accepting new members. Be it that they were amongst the youngest Shinsengumi captains; they still saved him a lot of trouble in this matter. Souji was ruthless and meticulous when it came to swordsmanship and Saitou-kun had a very good eye for evaluating people's skills, techniques and character. Besides today it was so hot that even thinking felt sluggish and he was curious to see who the men who had come all the way from Edo were.

"Exciting, ne, Hijikata-san?" Souji said grinning, sitting cross-legged and turned to look at the two combatants not really expecting a response.

The first match was fairly short and ended when the taller red clad swordsman got a hit to his right shoulder. The combatants greeted each other and moved to the side to make room for the next pair.

"Well?" Hijikata said, maybe slightly impatiently.

"The red clad person lost" Souji offered helpfully.

"I wasn't talking to you" Hijikata hissed to him, knowing full well that Souji knew this too. But the other just smiled as if he had just been thanked for his considerate help.

"It was an unnecessary mistake on the part of the defeated. I am sure he is the better of the two but his technique is not honed, he doesn't know what to do with his feet, so he does not utilize all the space available" Saito-kun said and thought for a moment "The one in black is also decent, but I think had it not been for the mistake he was closer to lose. Neither of them is exceptionally good, but they are not too bad"

"I talked with them earlier and it seems they are friends from Edo who practiced at the same dojo" Sannan-san said quietly "maybe they were not being honest with their skills having been forced to fight against each other in such a new and maybe more demanding than usual situation?"

With Saito-kun apparently not having a viewpoint on the matter Hijikata decided to move on to more interesting matters.

"Will they be of any use to us?" He asked from Saito-kun.

"Yes. Aside from some mistakes that are correctable they have acceptable technique, they just need more strict and constructed practice"

Slightly disappointed Hijikata had to agree with Saito-kun; no matter how much they were in need of new members, many of those who came to apply were not always in possession of horribly good skills, but were more often than not very enthusiastic about swordsmanship being sons of samurai families who would not inherit after their fathers but wished to use their skills for something.

"Alright, next pair. Begin!" Souji said and the two combatants who had been waiting moved to meet in the middle of the floor.

Concentrated Hisato followed how the traveler who had introduced himself as Sekiya stepped out to take his place on the floor. The Vice-commander was talking with Okita-sensei and Saito-sensei and the two men were waiting. Just like before Sekiya-san was wearing the light blue yukata, the obi neatly tied and his shoulder length hair up. In the brighter light of the day his hair was pitch black like coal but his skin was slightly pale and Hisato thought that he noticed he had light green eyes. He also looked much more relaxed than he ought to have given the situation and Hisato was wondering if he maybe didn't really want to join after all. The match turned out not horribly interesting, though Hisato was very pleased with the outcome as Sekiya-san won. The combatants proceeded so that in the end everyone would have fought at least one match against the others and the last match was between those who had the most wins. Sekiya-san won all his matches and was the other remaining swordsman. The other man was a very tall and broad shouldered man who had come the day before and slept over at the Yagi house. Pleased but in the name of honesty rather surprised Hisato had to admit that Sekiya-san had been better than he had initially thought that he would be. It was just that he didn't look all that strong to him.

"Begin!" Souji shouted and the two men charged towards each other and met with a loud bang.

"Hmm? They are much more serious this time. Ne, Hajime-kun? Especially the big guy" Souji said smiling wryly and turned quickly to slightly to look behind his shoulder.

Hijikta also looked at the other captain, but Saito-kun didn't say anything to this which Hijikata interpreted this time as a sign of agreement. According to one of Hijikata's many pet theories about the people in the Shinsengumi Saito-kun was someone who wished to eliminate saying unnecessary or obvious things. He then turned his attention to the two combatants. It seemed the man that Souji had referred to as the 'big guy' was truly much more serious about the final fight, but still Hijikata had a naggy feeling that he would lose despite of his efforts. Rather annoyingly Saito-kun was refusing to say anything about the other man other than that he was sure this one was the best among the four and that he would not know anything certain before the guy would have the good grace to take his fights seriously. Well, it doesn't really matter right now, Hijikata thought, no matter what, they are all good enough to be allowed to join and that's what matters. The fight ended almost at the same moment that Hijikata thought of this with the blue clad man landing a direct hit to the bigger man's abdomen. Souji ended the match and got up to go to greet the men.

"Sannan-san, list them all" Hijikata said.

"Very well" Sannan-san said warmly "How should I assign them to the units? Shall we keep the previous plan? Is it still necessary?"

"Yes, but this time let's make it a bit easier for the three first units as well. They are still outnumbered. Was it Nakagura who got the last time's winner?"

"The man that was assigned to Nakagura-san's unit was the rather gifted blacksmith, two weeks ago" Sannan-san said looking through his papers.

"Then Souji can take the big guy, the winner goes to the third unit. And the two others… was it the ninth's and eight's turn?" Hijikata said and got up to leave.

"It is somewhat unfair for Okita-san" Saito-kun said.

"It is fine. We can't keep on relying on individuals too much and overwork the captains. I can't have you or Souji fainting from over exertion just because you are given the least talented newcomers to look after. It should go this way around once in a while also. Besides we need to keep the units around the same size anyways with not too many differences with their ability. If we do indeed get more members in the future then we can adjust things further" Hijikata said flatly "I am sure Souji won't mind. Or do you object further?"

"No"

"Good. Sannan-san will inform the new members. So tell this to Souji as well, please" Hijikata said and turned around and left the dojo with Sannan-san.

Saito turned to look where Souji was talking to the four new members and pointing to the yard. He said something which was inaudible for Saito which made the big guy and the two friends from Edo laugh loudly. The fourth man merely smiled and instead turned to look towards the others who had been sitting on the other wall as if he heard his name called. Saito did not wish to join the group and got up to leave the dojo as well, he could talk to Souji later as he would most likely come by the back garden during his evening practice anyways.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Mostly Kazumi's PoV._

_Thank you very much for review and comments __t42n24t2__! They are much appreciated!_

Chapter 2. Morning

It was the dead of night and the room was filled with the sounds of snores, random scratching and sleepy mumbles. Ten of the lower ranking members of the Shinsengumi shared the room as their sleeping place. It was maybe a bit too small for all of them, but it was better than nothing. Kazumi lay awake on his first night as a member of the Shinsengumi and tried to understand how he had ended up here. Had he been told five years ago that he would end up as a member of the sword wielding protectors of Kyoto, he would have been slightly distressed. His life had been relatively tranquil and very good five years ago and very far away from the daily disputes of men, but it had all come to an all too sudden end and he had been perfectly unable to do anything about it. Now his master had insisted to turn even what remained of his former life upside down and pushed him to take action. First and foremost he was an onmyouji, not a bushi, but his master had insisted that eventually he would end up doing the same thing; protecting people and maybe this time around he could make the difference. Kazumi was not too optimistic. He had a very unpleasant feeling about this all and even though his skills at divination were, at least for an onmyouji, practically nonexistent, he still felt like the wisest course of action would be to leave the place and get far away fast. Then again, where the hell would he run to? He thought slightly irritated and got up. He felt like he would not be able to fall asleep. It was too hot and he was too troubled with his own thoughts. As quietly and carefully as possible left the cramped room and headed to the veranda. The house was old and there were house spirits everywhere; some of them even having the nerve to wave at him. The place had also not been cleaned properly for ages; probably this part of the house had not even been used by the Maekawa family before the arrival of the Shinsengumi. Kazumi peeked into the shadows and saw the lesser goo and sticky-youkai hiding in the nooks. They were attracted by all the dust, dirt, smell of iron and blood and the many humans. Kazumi decided that he would look around tomorrow night and find their nests. He would get rid of them as soon as possible; otherwise they were all going to be bed ridden with the diseases the youkai spread and he had enough troubles as it was. A summer cold was the last thing he needed.

Not really having anywhere special to go to Kazumi ended up at the back garden and sat down on the veranda. It was a quiet and pleasant night outside. He closed his eyes and pretended to be somewhere else.

"Do you also find this ironic Okinu?" He said very quietly to the air.

No one answered him and the wind seemed to try to make up for the silence by moving around leaves and swaying the plants. Kazumi smiled to himself, it felt like such a long time to be apart when he thought about Okinu. It was a different life. He felt a very familiar and welcome shiver created by a very unexpected and inhuman presence in the garden.

"_As your friend I will say this once more; you should not be doing that" _It was a very unnatural voice, one that not many could hear.

Smiling now from genuine pleasure Kazumi looked up towards the back of the garden. A giant wolf was sitting on the grass, swinging its fluffy tail around its body and staring right back at him with huge amber and green eyes. Her fur was silvery-white with some spots of black where the holy words stained it with ink. Kazumi extended his hand and the wolf rose to her feet and came to him, licking his fingertips.

"Setsuna" Kazumi said warmly and scratched the wolf's ears "I haven't seen you in a long time. What are you doing here? How have you been, how is Ran and Yasu?"

"_I am very well, so is mother. Yasu is, well he is always well"_

"You have not come to me in a long time, for a moment I was worried that something happened" Kazumi said and rested his hand on the wolf's head.

"_Hmph. It is you who has not given us any orders or called upon us in a long time, you only talked to those filthy rats. Well, mother said that maybe it is good. You were spending so much time among humans anyways and I think it does good to you to talk to some others than just us or dead people" _Setsuna said pointedly and then looked up _"Still, mother was worried enough about you to send me to check up on you and I really did want to come. We are missing you Kazumi, we want to come back"_

"I am sorry. I think I worried Ran. I should have at least sent you a message with the snow-foxes, but somehow I kept on being busy, you know how the monks are. And please do not call the snow-foxes rats, every time they hear you do that they complain to me for ages and then I cannot get anything done until I listen to their ranting " Kazumi pleaded.

The white wolf barked a laughter that revealed the finger long sharp teeth. She then got up and leaped on the veranda where she fitted only with some difficulty. She curled herself around Kazumi and looked up at him. He had to admit that even though it was very warm, he was happy for her gesture and leaned on the wolf.

"_So, you got this far. How is it? Tell me about the humans they call the Mibu wolves, do they live up to the name at all? Was the test hard?"_ Setsuna said expectantly.

Kazumi smiled, she had always been curious. No matter what she thought about the snow-foxes, she was almost as bad as they were.

"It was not hard at all. Actually what really was surprisingly hard was to keep myself in check so much. I am not used to holding back with the youkai. Humans are slower than I thought" Kazumi said "Now let's see, what should I tell you? Are you really that interested about the humans?" Kazumi asked, but he actually knew better.

Out of all his shikigami familiars Setsuna had always been the most adaptable and interested in the human world, up to a point where it had angered her mother. That was why she often came to the human world and protected him in the shape of a relatively huge white dog.

"How about this Setsuna? I will call you over to this side tomorrow and you can pretend to be my dog and then you can see for yourself?" Kazumi suggested; he felt like not talking about the Mibu wolves tonight.

"_Animal companion" _Setsuna growled _"And fine, just don't forget!" _She said sharply and jumped down to the ground and with a very wolfish grin she vanished over the border to the other world.

Reminded by Setsuna's questions Kazumi thought back to the afternoon despite of himself. He had been very curious about the Shinsengumi members and even though he had only heard the names of two of the four men, he thought he could guess a third. Sannan Keisuke had introduced himself when he had explained about the test and the order they would be fighting. He had seemed like a very refined and kind person to Kazumi, someone who took his responsibility extremely seriously. The next one had been Okita Souji. He was a broad shouldered and tallish young man with a cute face and apparently very cheerful nature. He didn't really seem like someone who would be famed as a master swordsman, but more like someone who ran an inn and made good friends with all the customers who would be returning time after time to hear his stories. Yet, when he had come to talk to Kazumi and the other three, he had talked about their swordsmanship and the matches with much interest and knowledge and then there was something about him. His aura had the sharp feeling of danger. Then there two other who Kazumi did not know from before, but at least about one of them he had his suspicions. The man was a slightly older and a very serious looking person, with a very handsome face and long black hair. Before coming to Mibu, Kazumi had heard countless stories about the ridiculously handsome Vice-Commander of the Mibu group. He had to admit that they were on to something with him, though Kazumi was sure that if the guy was more true to his nature he would be smiling more. He was curious to find out what kind of person he was, considering that so many different views of him circulated in the city. The fourth man had remained a mystery to Kazumi until after he left the dojo. Maeda had come to him and wanted to know to which unit Sannan-san had allocated Kazumi. After hearing his response Maeda had very enthusiastically announced that they were in the same unit and their unit leader had been sitting in the test and he was called Saito Hajime. Had Sekiya noticed him? Maeda had wanted to know. That was how he had arrived into the situation where, save for the fact that he looked young, had a very pretty face and that he was of a slightly smaller build than his companions, his name was pretty much the only thing that Kazumi could say for sure about his unit leader.

The sad truth was that the Mibu village was not big enough for the Shinsengumi and was getting more and more cramped by the day. When they had arrived they had been almost all of the time at the verge of starvation, begging for rice, but everybody had been enjoying the luxury of having their own rooms. As they had gained new members this state of things had changed a bit; there was still too little food but now even the captains had to share their accommodation. For some reason, which he had not been able to fathom as of yet, Hijikata-san had decided that Souji made a perfect roommate for him and Saito Hajime felt like making a protest. It was not that he minded it that much. It was not that Souji was not clean, it was just that he did not keep his things in one place and when he took them out he somehow failed to put them back, which resulted into neat piles of things sailing across the room. Souji was not lazy either; he just didn't do things in the same order as Hajime did, like cleaning his bed away right after waking up, not after breakfast but at least he did that. It was not like he minded Souji borrowing his things, but it was slightly confusing to realize that all your ink was gone or that you no longer had any socks. Not that Hajime wanted his socks back anyways. He knew he could have been much worse off so he didn't want to push his luck too much. The worst Souji did was talking at night in his sleep, mostly to Hijikata-san or Kondo-sensei, and that was fine with Hajime; at least he did not snore.

It was really early in the morning; the blue and grey moment before sunrise when Hajime decided to get up. He wanted to get his practice done before the sun rose; there were less people around and quite frankly he liked how the air smelled in the very early morning. He glanced over to where Souji was sleeping curled on his side his hair a mess around his face and his covers kicked to the floor next to him. After getting dressed Hajime picked up the cover and dumped it unceremoniously on Souji; it landed somewhat on him. Idiot, don't go to sleep with wet hair and then kick off your covers, he thought and headed to the door.

"Good morning, Hajime-kun" Souji muttered sleepily from under the cover pulling it over his head "Have fun".

He didn't answer and slid the door close behind him. No matter how hard he had tried since they had started sharing it, he had not been able to leave the room without waking Souji up. He had pretty much given up on trying; Souji had too good instincts even though he tried not to show it. He walked through the house to the back garden and passed Hijikata-san's room. There was a faint light and he was sure that the Vice-Commander was awake and working. He was almost at the end of the corridor which led to the garden when he heard someone talking. He could not quite make out the words, but followed the voice outside. Interestingly there was just one person there, sitting at the far end of the veranda and he turned out to be the winner of yesterday's test matches. Had he been talking to himself? Just as Hajime stepped into the doorway the person got very quickly up as if startled and turned around to face him and then just as suddenly he relaxed. He was definitely not serious yesterday, Hajime thought, he was much more so now when he had not been on guard, when he was surprised he moved much faster and with much more accuracy. What is also very troublesome is that he might be at least as good as Souji with his instincts. Very carefully he did not even consider that he might have gotten clumsier himself.

"Good morning" The person said politely and in matter of fact tone.

As annoying as it all was Hajime was stuck with him and it was all the Vice-Commander's fault. He did respect Hijikata-san and he did not even consider of not obeying him, but he had absolutely no delusions about just how devious the man was.

"Good morning" Hajime said as he started towards the end of the veranda.

He knew full well that Hijikata-san had not assigned this newcomer to his unit out of friendly consideration. The truth was that Souji was patrolling the East part of Kyoto, which was the most dangerous for the Shinsengumi as it housed the most Pro-emperor groups and their headquarters. The big guy from yesterday was an intimidating sight and that might turn away some of the more enthusiastic Choushuu members and save Souji from some extra trouble. No matter how strict he was, Hijikata-san still wanted to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. When it came to this guy he was too skilled to be turned away, at least as of yet and still Hijikata-san did not like it when people had secrets he did not know. Hajime was sure that Hijikata-san thought of him as the best person to keep an eye on this man as well as expecting him to find out what is was exactly that he was trying so hard to hide. It was such an annoyance.

Not counting a few by-chance-exceptions as long as he could remember Kazumi had had very bad luck when it came to people he met and had to deal with. Sometimes even he was surprised how bad it could be. Yesterday after his two first matches he had had the very uncomfortable feeling that someone was observing him with extreme care and somehow the feeling was not especially friendly. It had taken him a moment to figure it out, but he had concluded that the unknown violet haired man was very curious about him and did not like him all that much. Even though Kazumi did not know how it was possible he had a very bad feeling about it all; either the guy had figured him out already or something about Kazumi irked him really much. Kazumi really hoped that the latter was the reason; if for nothing else then at least for the sake of his orders and his duty which both would definitely be in danger of being revealed and not happening if the former was the reason. But he was not only been made part of this guy's unit he actually had the bad luck to bump into him in the middle of the night when there was no one else around and pretty much very limited choice of plausible explanations as to why he was hanging out at the back veranda. He had not brought anything with him from the room, not even a lantern as he forgot that he was supposed to have one and thus couldn't even claim to have been reading or something. He could only be happy about the fact that Setsuna had left early enough. He really should be more careful, but he had not even considered that someone else would also be awake at this hour. He didn't really have any other choice than to wait as the guy walked up to him. He was somewhat shorter than Kazumi was and looked frailer than he had before seen from far way. Still he had a very sharp, clear and cold or hard feeling about him and there was not much to say about his aura other than that, well save for the very suspicious feeling that shone trough. It was very neatly shut off from sight and Kazumi was actually rather impressed, you rarely saw people so self-conscious and reserved. It would take ages to learn to read his aura. Well, if he had ages to spend on it as a Shinsengumi member. Kazumi was very sure that this person was amongst the last people he ever wanted to underestimate; which was actually a rather depressing thought considering the current situation. Kazumi prepared himself for the worst.

"You are Sekiya Kazumi?" His unit leader said to Kazumi rather indifferently and without waiting for an answer he continued "I am Saito Hajime, Captain of the third unit of the Shinsengumi"

"Nice to meet you" Kazumi said if for nothing else then for the sake of general politeness, but he got only a short nod as an answer.

As if Kazumi was not even there any longer Saito-san stepped down from the veranda and walked to the middle of the grass. You are not serious, Kazumi thought and he was now sure more than ever that he was under suspicion. He could not help himself but to look at Saito-san, but he was doing a splendid job, both at ignoring Kazumi and at slicing the air with his practice swings. Slightly disturbed Kazumi turned and left the garden, as he walked through the house he could not help but wonder what was going to happen to him. Things were not really turning out well. When he came out again he found Setsuna sitting on the grass impatiently sweeping her tail; she had not been able to wait until the morning came. It seemed that everybody was still sleeping, but just in case Kazumi got down to the ground and went to stand next to the outer wall. He pulled a paper with a summoning spell from his sleeve, straightened it on his hand and held the corner between his index and middle finger.

"Setsuna, come to me" He called and the huge wolf disappeared and instead turned into a much smaller, though still rather big and very wolfish looking dog.

"_You sure took your time"_ She pouted and came to sit next to Kazumi who was too distressed to protest _"I don't think he likes you too much"_ she said and looked behind her as if she could see through the house.

"_I rather agree with you on that"_ Kazumi thought aloud and sighed _"were you watching?"_

"_Well, you see, just as I was leaving I saw him and I was just a bit interested to see what kind of human he was. But I tried to hide; you are such a bad liar and even worse at pretending not to be able to see us. It is really embarrassing sometimes, you know"_ Setsuna said and made Kazumi feel a rather guilty tinge in his side _"So I thought I would do you a favor and now that we are on the topic, I was thinking I could maybe stay around a bit longer like this? I think it is much less suspicious than you talking to yourself? That is if you feel up to it"_ Setsuna added the last remark a bit more meekly than was her usual manner.

"_Sure, don't worry about it"_ Kazumi said smiling and bend down to pet the soft fur and Setsuna closed her eyes rather shamelessly enjoying herself.

"_Alright, time to work" _She said suddenly and got up_ "I take you haven't found out anything about the rasetsu yet?"_

"_No, I sent the snow-foxes to look around the headquarters, but none has returned with anything useful. Actually I doubt that there is anything here, I don't feel anything like that present"_ Kazumi said looking around at the houses emerging from the dark with the rising sun.

"_Your master seemed very sure they are in Kyoto, trying to create rasetsu and that they are connected to the Mibu wolves. He will not be happy if we don't find them" _Setsuna said dreading _"But I do agree with you. I was looking around also, but there are no such scents here. I think I would recognize such a weird smell. Oh, by the way, he smells very nice"_ Setsuna said brightly.

"Who?" Kazumi said aloud suddenly thrown off by the odd comment.

"_That human from earlier"_ Setsuna said a bit impatiently as if it was obvious.

"_Oh, him. I didn't notice"_

"_Well, of course you wouldn't. You never notice the interesting things" _Setsuna said a bit haughtily and her ears perked _"I smell food; I think breakfast is served soon. Let's go eat"_ She commanded and pounced towards the kitchen.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: A bit bloody chapter, with much fighting planned._

_Thank you to __SeiryuNoAme!_

Chapter 3. Nightly visitors.

With the end of summer came the much longed after cooler air and chillier nights which started to turn the leaves into the magnificent colors of fire and ember. It also brought a change to the Shinsengumi; the dual leadership between Kondo and Serizawa was about to come to a rather sudden end. It had been a very unfortunate time for the Shinsengumi that had done nothing to promote their case in Kyoto and that had angered their benefactor the Aizu clan. Following Matsudaira-sama's orders Hijikata had devised a plan to get rid of the Serizawa faction neatly and silently. He had to admit that he was not too saddened to do this as he had come to despise the man and loathed him for his unruly behavior and the bad reputation he was bringing to the group. The only thing he actually felt slightly uneasy and bad about was for Souji who for some reason liked Serizawa-sensei. Then again Souji pretty much liked anyone so Hijikata was sure he would get over it soon enough. What he was not sure about was if he should ask Souji to aid in his plan to dispose of Serizawa Kamo. For the plan to succeed Serizawa and his supporters had to be killed quickly, quietly and efficiently. They could not leave any chances or evidence behind. It had to be a clod-blooded murder in order for it to appear as one when it would be discovered.

"Toshi?" Kondo-san asked from his right "Is something the matter?"

"No, nothing. I am just trying to think who to pick" He answered calmly.

"I quite agree with your previous suggestion, Hijikata-kun. I think it would be best to pick amongst the original members from the Shieikan. This way we know who to trust" Sannan-san said and sipped his tea.

"It is essential that this stays as a secret. We need to minimize the amount of people taking part in this" Hijikata said and wondered about Souji again; they also needed _skilled_ swordsmen. No matter his condition or the situation, Serizawa-sensei would not go down without a fight.

The three of them fell into a rather heavy silence again. They had been discussing the very last part of the plan for a few hours. The first part of getting rid of Niimi had gone smoothly, but then again he was the small fry and getting him to commit seppuku had saved them from having to kill the man. At least he had had that much of pride left in him, Hijikata thought rather sourly, he had been a bit surprised. But when it came to Serizawa-sensei it was a good deal more complicated. Niimi had been stupid enough to openly break the Shinsengumi rules not realizing that he was not important and powerful enough to escape from being prosecuted. Even though Serizawa-sensei broke the rules as well, he could not be ordered to commit seppuku on such reasons. They needed something else; that was why they were waiting for the opportune moment to get to him. The plan asked for a night when he would be drunk enough and distracted, so that they could attack him either on his way back to Mibu or in his chambers at the Yagi house. He would have to use the utmost care with this matter, Hijikata thought, he had been working hard to make it come true and he was not going to let it all go to ruins.

"Then Toshi, let me help. The three of us and Souji can take care of this" Kondo-san said.

"But that is not possible. You have to be here when it all happens; you cannot be associated with this in any way, what if something goes wrong? It would be the end of the Shinsengumi as we know it" Hijikata said and Kondo-san looked depressed.

"I see, you are right Toshi. Still, I feel like such a useless friend not being able to at least help out" he said.

"But that is not true at all Kondo-kun" Sannan-san said "It is exactly like Hijikata-kun said, you help the most by taking Serizawa-san's place after this and for that you have to be here to receive the news".

Yes, that would be how it will end up if everything goes according to plan, Hijikata thought, they had been talking about it for a few weeks now and it was finally turning into reality. He gave a look to Sannan-san who was sitting on Kondo-san's other side calm and posed as ever. They were lucky to have him, even though they did not always get along, Hijikata definitely appreciated him and his capabilities much and thought of him as a rather unbearable older brother.

"What about Inoue-kun?" Sannan-san said suddenly.

"He is not the most accomplished with the sword. I am afraid we need to be very fast. Serizawa-sensei will most likely turn out to be difficult to kill" Hijikata said and added rather reluctantly "I will ask Souji"

"Then we need one more?" Sannan-san said.

"Shouldn't we ask Saito-kun?" Kondo-san asked.

"I will ask Harada. He has been with us at the Shieikan longer and if Souji is with us he can take care of Serizawa-sensei. We won't need Saito" Hijikata decided and added "We will meet here again tomorrow. Serizawa-sensei is going to be taking part at a party in the Gion. I will have Yamazaki-kun follow him home and inform us when he arrives. I will go ahead and make sure he is home. Then the four of us will enter the house and kill him and his companions. We cannot leave any witnesses"

"Are the four of you really enough Toshi?" Kondo-san asked rather worried.

"It should be fine. They will be drunk and we will take them by surprise. I will go with Souji, Sannan-san and Harada can take care of Hirayama and Hirama" Hijikata said confidently and the matter was not discussed any further.

It was not exceptionally late but Souji was in bed. He was fully clothed, lying still and looking up the ceiling. He was waiting for Hijikata-san to come and get him. Any minute now he would appear and they would go to kill Serizawa-sensei. He felt rather heavy; he had been feeling like that ever since Hijikata-san had talked to him this afternoon. It was not that he was frightened or even really sad it was just that he wanted to do it right, one clean cut. He felt like he was now responsible to send Serizawa-sensei from this world to the next in a proper manner, a manner that would be fitting for a bushi. He felt like the man deserved it and Souji had rather liked him, he might not have been the most responsible person, but he had definitely had his good points and at times he had acted in an exemplary manner. It was just that he had become of liability and a enemy to the Shinsengumi's existence and to Kondo-san. That was why Souji had not really been all that surprised, not after what happened to Niimi-sensei, he had actually been waiting for Hijikata-san to come and ask. What had surprised him was that they had not asked Hajime-kun. Not that the person in question had seemed to have been all that surprised. Souji turned his head a little to look towards the other bed. Hajime-kun was also waiting, though he was probably not waiting for Hijikata-san as much as to see what would happen. He was lying on his bed, fully dressed and looking at wind bell over the door. It moved a little but the wind was not strong enough to ring the bell and the room was absolutely quiet. Souji could not help but wonder how he knew. It had been told to him by Hijikata-san that absolutely no one knew except for Kondo-sensei, Sannan-san, Hijikata-san, Harada-san and Souji himself, but he was pretty sure Hajime-kun knew perfectly well. He had an uncanny way to find out or figure out things which he was not supposed to know or could not know. Souji was rather curious to learn how he did it.

"What is it?" Hajime-kun asked him rather annoyed not turning his gaze from the wind bell.

"Nothing really" Souji said and turned to his side "You don't suppose that if I keep on staring at you very intently for a long time you will feel really awkward and blush?" He asked very interested but never got a reply.

Being slightly bored Souji decided that he should definitely test if he was right or wrong and tried to stare at Hajime-kun as intently as he could. It went on for a while without any notable changes and he got even more bored.

"You are no fun" he sighed and turned to lie on his back again.

"If you don't want to, I can do it" Hajime-kun replied.

Despite of himself Souji had to smile. He knew perfectly well Hajime-kun would do it for him is he asked it from him or even if he didn't ask.

"You are really adorable Hajime-kun, did you know that?" Souji said and only got a cold silence "But I already promised Hijikata-san that I would do it. Besides, I am never going to hesitate when it comes to cutting down Kondo-san's enemies. I will definitely be useful to Kondo-san"

They lay there in a comfortable waiting silence a while longer when Hijikata-san and Yamazaki-kun appeared at the door. Both Souji and Hajime-kun got up without saying a word and Souji followed Hijikata-san outside. It was a moonless night and it was already dark outside.

"Alright then. I guess it is time for a small late night visit" Souji said not really to anyone in particular as he started off towards the Yagi house after Hijikata-san.

He felt a bit uneasy about the whole thing when he watched Souji and Hijikata-san walk away. They would only get this one chance to make it otherwise the whole situation might turn upside down and it would be them to be send to death.

"Saito-san?" Yamazaki-kun said rather sharply "I think you should know. Just a moment ago on my way here I saw a member of your unit, the tall guy who has that white dog. We crossed paths just outside the east gate. I would have stopped him but I had to come here, I can't send anyone after him right now and I am in a bit of a hurry…" He said in a slightly stressed way looking at the direction where Souji and the Vice-Commander had just disappeared.

"I understand. I will go after him" Hajime said a bit unexcitedly.

"It is just that it seemed a bit odd to me. It is tonight and he was running away towards the edge of the city, it would make it a bit too much of a coincidence" Yamazaki-kun was saying, he was practically already out of the room and going.

Picking up his swords from the floor Hajime left the room and went towards the east gate. He started towards the forest that grew around the lower hills of the Nishiyama.

They had planned it very carefully. They had been collecting all the available information about their adversary and waiting for a favorable time to start and make their first move. When the sun had set five nights ago and the moon had risen to the sky they had set off from the Shinsengumi headquarters towards the river where they had engaged in their first battle in Kyoto. Setsuna had seemed to think they were in for a great time and fun, but Kazumi was inclined think otherwise. He had not really been looking forward to their nightly battles as much as his shikigami familiar and after a week he was really getting bored with it. The whole thing had started almost two weeks ago, when they had spotted the first corpse-youkai at the edge of the city. They were returning to the headquarters from their daily rounds with the third unit when Kazumi had sensed it. That time Kazumi had dispatched Setsuna to follow the youkai and they had found that there were several nests in Kyoto where the creatures lived. Tonight they were going to go and destroy the biggest nest that was at the very edge of the city in the woods at the foothills of the Nishi Mountains. They had been very lucky and gone in and out of the headquarters unnoticed expect for tonight, but Kazumi had decided to worry about that later. They had their own duties that they would have to take care of first and after that they would worry about their mission with the Shinsengumi.

It was very dark and for a moment Hajime had lost track of the two. They had not noticed him since they left the city, but as he had arrived to the narrowing road leading to the mountain pass he saw no sign of the man and his dog. It was as if they had vanished. He would probably have been forced to return to headquarters empty handed had he not had the lantern with him. He saw the bend grass at the side of the road some twenty steps ahead of him. The summer grass was high and reached to the knee and very dry after the heat. It was bend neatly in a straight line leading towards the trees. It might have been anything or anyone, but as he had no better clues and as it seemed the only plausible explanation he followed the path into the forest. He reached a small clearing and on the other edge he saw Sekiya-san standing alone facing the other direction as if waiting for something to appear from there. He was not in his uniform but wearing a green kimono and white hakama and carrying his swords. Hajime was about to go to him, when Sekiya-san turned quickly around when he realized he was not alone. For a moment he just stared at Hajime frozen to the spot. Had Sekiya-san been expecting someone and was surprised to see him? Hajime thought but as he was thinking about it, to his surprise, instead of trying to run away Sekiya-san dashed towards him. Expecting Sekiya-san to draw his weapon he put the lantern to the ground and prepared to take a stance to draw his own katana. But just when Sekiya-san got in reach he suddenly stopped in front of him. He had an odd look on his face; a mixture of disbelief and worry and something else which Hajime could not quite recognize and he had not drawn his weapon.

"Why are you here?" Sekiya-san demanded and managed to ask the exact same question Hajime had meant to ask from him. Sekiya quickly looked over his left shoulder "You-"

"I am here to take you back to the headquarters. You have broken the rules by-"

"That is…not now. You have to go back! I can't come. Hurry! You-" He fell suddenly silent staring at Hajime "How did you get here?"

Not waiting for a reply to his ridiculous question he looked towards the way they had come and he took a step backwards.

"I see. Now it is too late. The border is already up. You walked straight through the barrier" he said rather weakly and sounded a bit as if something was slightly amusing him "Now you have no choice".

"That is not something for you to decide. You have to come-" Hajime was saying when Sekiya-san suddenly stepped really close to him.

"No, _you _have to be quiet now and then you will do what I say. And also, sorry" he muttered.

He was pulling hastily open the kimono he was wearing and then reached under the cloth pulling out a rosary and an omamori tied to it. He said nothing and very quickly he put it around Hajime's neck and then tucked it inside his clothes with much haste and force and paying no attention to him trying to object to this. He then pulled out a long red string. Every now and then he quickly glanced over his shoulder and kept on not answering any questions. He tied the red string around his own neck. He then held out a piece of paper to Hajime to take while he was holding the red string and making a very elaborate knot onto it. Sekiya-san looked behind them and back at him.

"Take it. Put it in your mouth and then close your eyes and stand still" He said very seriously and very bossily.

"Excuse me?" He just could not help himself.

He had to say it and he was not going to just follow some perfectly nonsense orders, well at least not from this person, not without some clarification.

"It would be really helpful if you could do it. It would be a horribly long explanation as to why and we do not have almost any time left. I am trying to save your life. I can't do it all by myself, so I need your help. Or maybe it is more like I am trying to help you to save yourself. So you actually do have a choice, to refuse and die now or do it and maybe survive" Sekiya-san said speaking hastily and he was perfectly serious "So please, Saito-san, help me".

He was not really sure why he did it, maybe dying now didn't sound all too desirable, but Hajime took the piece of paper which he realized was an ofuda and bit on it. He then closed his eyes and immediately as he did this Sekiya-san stepped right in front of him. He tied a string around Hajime's neck and then placed his hand over his eyes. Sekiya-san started to pray, he was talking very quickly and with words Hajime did not recognize. He then stepped back, pulled a bit on the string. Sekiya-san had not lifted his hand, but Hajime heard the how the string was cut.

"It should work now. Tell me if you can see them" He said and then took his hand away.

Not really sure what he was expected to see Hajime opened his eyes again. It took him a split second longer than it should have otherwise to realize the darkness around him was not empty at all and that there were looming tall figures, resembling human beings at the edges of the clearing. With the sudden realization came the feeling of immediate danger and he instinctively dropped his hand to the hilt of the katana.

"That won't work on them" Sekiya-san said.

He was standing right next to Hajime and looking at the darkness. He sounded somewhat sorry while saying it and he turned back to face Hajime.

"I have to admit I am very relived you would think of that and not of running away. I was afraid of the reaction all this would create, people usually take it rather badly; you are rather exceptional. People usually scream or run and scream. And in any case, they would catch you and it would make my life much more difficult. Here, you take this" he said and pulled his own katana from his obi and handed it to him "I will take that one, if I may. I think I can make it work somewhat" he said and without any further explanations took the other katana.

Sekiya-san watched the darkness and drew the sword. He took another ofuda and wiped the blade with it while chanting something very quietly. He then pointed to the lantern.

"Ka, come" He whispered and the flame jumped out of the lantern and just before it landed on the blade, Sekiya-san threw his hand forward and the flame darted away, grew and burst into pieces.

The clearing was now lit up; the grass dotted with small flames burning happily in midair with an unnaturally white and blue flame forming a ring around the two humans.

"There are three things I would like to say" Sekiya-san said and this time he did not remove his gaze anymore from the lurking figures that were gathering around them in growing numbers "Firstly, I know you do not intend to, but do try not to bleed on the blade. It will make it useless. Secondly, they are neither alive nor dead. They are not very rational and do not have any emotions. They will kill you if you do not kill them first, for they only know evil, violence and death when it comes to humans. Thirdly and this is most important, do not let that string be cut. If cut, it will leave you without the second sight and practically blind and I cannot promise I will be able to save you. I guess I should wish you good luck" Sekiya-san said and he gripped the katana and drew the wakizashi he was also carrying with his left hand "Well, I have been wondering just how good you are, so I guess now I get to see" he said rather lightly compared to his previous tone.

He said nothing more and just walked a few steps towards the center of the clearing giving a few practice swings to Hajime's katana as he went. It was either this act or just a coincidence, but the youkai decided to charge at them at that exact moment coming from all directions, crying out as they came.

Ps. Just a few notes; _ofuda _are those strips of papers, that work as talismans, that have writing on them, usually the name of a kami and the name of the shrine that issued it. _Omamori _are decorated small bags that carry the ofuda inside. They can serve as amulets that give good luck, but are most important as providers of protection. _Wakizashi _is a "companion sword" that is it is about 50 cm. long that was carried together with the katana.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Sorry for the long wait! This is the continuation chapter to chapter 3. Hope you like it and if you don't please tell._

Chapter 4. At the border

Probably the situation and the inhuman creatures should have scared him, but he thought it would be much more useful not to think of it. Being scared led to hesitation and panic and both were deadly. His mind was much more preoccupied with trying to figure out which was the easiest, quickest and most effective way to cut down the youkai as they were not like any of his previous human opponents. As he did the youkai dissolved and bones, rotting flesh and dirt scattered on the ground. Actually had it all not been so unbelievable and smelled so bad Hajime would probably have enjoyed it just a little; the katana Sekiya-san had loaned him was far better than his own and it was a very nice feeling to have the chance to try out something that was made so perfectly. The youkai were not armed, save for some odd pairs of teeth and claws and brute strength. Surviving only demanded strength to cut deep and at times agility. Most of the creatures that were almost twice as tall as Hajime was, were not really swift in their movements being actually rather clumsy and slow, yet very strong. Even so some of them and the first one had surprised him were much more quick and nimble and needed to be taken care of with much more technique and wit than brute force. Hajime had a bad feeling that the more nimble and smaller youkai knew this, no matter what Sekiya-san had said about them being irrational. Well, not that they seemed to be able to make up a plan to use their strength more efficiently than just to charge head on. But there were very many of them and more kept coming. He felt like asking Sekiya-san if he had a plan or had he been prepared to die here. He cut a smaller youkai neatly in half and turned to Sekiya-san. The circle they were in was not so big that they could or even afforded to get too far away from each other. Sekiya-san was just a few steps away and he had just cut down one of the bigger creatures. Hajime was not surprised he was right, he usually was, but this time he was a bit unwilling to admit it; Sekiya-san was not only 'not bad', he was very good. He moved very lightly and fast and danced past the gruesome figures aiming punches at him. Not only that he fought the youkai with two swords; he used the wakizashi to parry the punches and gave the lethal strike with the katana. He had absolutely no style, but a very good technique. Hajime had to turn away to cut down another corpse-creature, but Sekiya-san moved to stand next to him.

"I see that you are still alive. I guess that makes you good" He said and dodged to his right and then stepped back "But then again these things are not that hard to kill and my omamori and the katana are both very useful and probably a great help…I guess I shouldn't be surprised" he said and slashed of a rotting limb.

I am surprised you can kill anything at all with your uncontrolled technique and utter lack of any style, Hajime thought, not to mention that _you_ are still alive.

"If you don't mind, I could use your help. Now that you are here" Sekiya-san said and stopped to block a strike "You see and I am not saying this to be offensive, but you really ruined my plan. I could try something else than hacking dead things into pieces. I mean this is getting boring and I think we could get this finished. Usually" he said and they both had to side step and cut down one creature each to get back "usually it is not possible, since after being lured out, there are too many and I am alone, but there are not so many left now, so I will ask for some help and exterminate them. If you can watch my back for a while, please" Sekiya-san said.

Hajime looked around to see how many there were left. Not all of the youkai seemed like they wanted to fight anymore. They were not charging with as much enthusiasm as earlier, but they were not running away either; they were probably just waiting for a chance to strike. He only nodded in agreement.

"It should wipe them all out, but a few might survive so be careful. I will try to be very quick" Sekiya-san said and he came to stand next to Hajime.

He guessed that it was a choice between two; either they would fight not knowing for how long and tire out and lose or try to annihilate everything once and for all, while at the same time giving the enemy the chance to strike. He could not really see what Sekiya-san was doing, but he heard the rustle of paper and Sekiya-san's voice whispering words. He saw the movement from the corner of his eye as Sekiya-san threw the paper into the air, where it suddenly stopped and floated. Maybe from realizing what was going to happen to them the youkai jumped forward to get to them. The closest ones made it almost to them, but they were too slow and easy to cut down. From the paper erupted a very sudden and bright yellow light burning the paper away. The light shot outwards in a circle that engulfed the whole clearing setting the corpse creatures in fire. A few indeed did survive and now threw themselves towards Hajime and Sekiya-san, but just as they did a giant head of a wolf appeared from the light and caught the corpse youkai in its jaws. As the light was dying out Hajime saw that the head was attached to the rest of a giant black and grey wolf which was followed by another slightly smaller one the color of fine wood. The clearing quieted down and for a moment nothing moved as everyone was trying to see if they had made it. The wolves sat on the ground, their fur shiny in the firelight and marked with words. For some reason Hajime found the wolves to be much more implausible and scary than the malevolent youkai. They had sharp wise eyes that betrayed their not entirely animal like nature and mind. Sekiya-san went to the two wolves and petted the caramel one.

"Hello Yasu. How are you? Thank you very much Ran. You have helped me greatly" He said to the bigger wolf who nodded "If you wish you may leave now" Seikya-san added and the wolf got to her feet.

"Be more careful" she growled showing her teeth.

"_Hai_" Sekiya-san smiled and the wolf disappeared and the onmyouji turned to the caramel wolf again "Yasu, are you alright? Where is your sister? How did it go with the search?"

"I am fine. We were outside the barrier looking for the ones who might have gotten away when you called. I came immediately with mother, but Setsuna was further away. She found a few and she wanted to make sure that there were no more of them" the caramel wolf said and relaxed to lie on his belly "She will be here so-".

"Kazumi! Kazumi! Are you alright?"

They all heard the white wolf before they saw her appear from the forest, running so fast that she had troubles stopping in time.

"I am very fine. There was no need to hurry here so much" Sekiya-san said and he sounded rather amused and the caramel wolf snorted.

"But you asked for us! You look a little pale to me. What happened? Is-" the wolf stopped midsentence and turned to look straight at Hajime "He can see us! Kazumi! He can see us" after saying this she pounced straight towards Hajime who even against his better understanding stepped backwards and lifted the katana instinctively.

"Kazumi?" the huge white wolf asked distressed "Look".

She had stopped in the middle of her leap and sounded now horribly confused looking down at the gleaming sword.

"I am really sorry Saito-san. Please forgive her for being an idiot" Sekiya-san said and bowed at him and then came to stand next to the wolf tugging at its fur "Setsuna, sit down. You cannot jump on normal humans like that its-"

"But he can see us" the white wolf insisted "He smells so nice, I want to-".

"Baka Onee-chan" the caramel wolf laughed "that is exactly why you can't do it"

"Shut up Yasu" the white wolf growled.

To Hajime the whole thing was starting to be a bit too much and he was starting not to care that much. He was wondering if everything would disappear if he cut the red string around his neck. But now that he knew the wolves and everything else were there in this world, he felt extremely uncomfortable about the idea of cutting the string and not being able to see. He was also rather curious.

"Sekiya-san?" Hajime said and Sekiya-san turned instantly to look at him, maybe a bit anxious as if he was worried about him "Here. Thank you for lending it to me" He said and handed the sword to Sekiya-san.

"No, it was…I mean, it was my pleasure" Sekiya-san said and took the sword "Here, then you take this back. Thank you for lending it to me" he continued, bowed and held out Hajime's own sword.

He took it feeling somewhat relieved to get it back, as if the familiar feeling and weight of it made it more trustworthy than anything else. He then remembered that he also had the omamori and reached to take it off. He held it out for Sekiya-san to take but the other made no efforts to take it back.

"That's not necessary. You can keep it" He said smiling a bit.

"It is yours. Take it" Hajime said.

"Really, it is fine. Keep it" Sekiya-san said and it seemed he almost flinched away from the rosary.

"I do not want it"

"Think of it as a gift then?" Sekiya-san insisted and it was really annoying Hajime.

"It is very valuable. Give it to someone else" He didn't feel like arguing over such a trivial matter any longer but it didn't seem like Sekiya-san felt like giving in either. He just looked at Hajime for a moment and then sat down on the grass.

"You are definitely one of the most stubborn people I have ever met" Sekiya-san sighed and rested his head on his hands.

He looked a bit worn out to Hajime, as if he had caught the flu and not slept in about a month. He had not seemed so badly off earlier. Sekiya-san turned to look at the praying beads and the omamori.

"I know it is really valuable and I don't even mean its worth in money. But even if I wanted to I can't take it back. I gave it to you. It will now only protect you. It will be useless to me and at best only serve as a memento. Since it will protect you which is its purpose, you should keep it" He said a bit strained.

"In that case, I will give it to you as a gift. You seem to be in need of one"

"I thought that you would say that" Sekiya-san muttered and he sounded a bit amused "But it doesn't work like that. You can't give it back to me, you can give it to some else though if you so wish. There is a rule in place in this world, which is very hard to break without causing evil; you can't take back something you have already given and you cannot give back something you have already taken. That is how it works for the most things and that is what makes some things so valuable, especially life. To try to break the rule, more often than not causes a lot of disturbance. Only if you die I can take it back, but as I said, I don't want it. So please take it".

"Kazumi, it is fine. Give it a rest, if the human doesn't get it, it won't matter anyways. Let's just go back for tonight. We can finish this tomorrow?" The caramel wolf said and got to his feet.

"That doesn't sound too bad, I feel like sleeping for a week" Sekiya-san said to the wolf who laughed.

"You should, you haven't slept for a week" The white wolf pointed out annoyed.

"Really?" Sekiya-san sounded slightly surprised and got slowly to his feet and the white wolf rolled her eyes "I guess it's no wonder then. Very well, let's go back" he said and started to walk towards the road after the caramel wolf leading the way.

Also the white wolf got to her feet and took a few steps to follow Sekiya-san and the caramel wolf, but she stopped when she noticed that Hajime didn't.

"Don't worry about Kazumi, he has his own so he doesn't need that back. Besides he has Okinu-sama's hougu for protection" She said in order to be helpful and turned to follow her master.

He was not sure, but he was starting to think that maybe Sekiya-san was out of his mind. Was he going to just walk back to the headquarters, after breaking the rules? Maybe he was hoping they would not apply to him? It didn't seem likely that he was not aware of them, but just in case he was, Hajime thought he should point it out to him, if for nothing else then in the name of fairness.

"Saito-san? Is something wrong?" Sekiya-san asked.

The three of them had stopped and all of them were looking back at him. Hajime decided to ignore the question and not to point out the abnormality of walking corpses and talking wolves, not mention that he was pretty sure Sekiya-san was insane.

"You do know that you have broken the rules by leaving the headquarters without permission and that you will most likely be punished for what you have done?" Hajime asked watching him carefully.

"Yes, but it is my fault. If I break the rules I should take better care not to get caught, but now I have let you find me out. I can only blame myself so I guess I deserve the punishment. Well, as long as it is not seppuku, I can't let the Vice-Commander make me kill myself yet, I have something to do first. I also have to find out who made the corpse youkai to come here and I really have to make them stop" Sekiya-san said not sounding too worried about the matter. He paused for a moment as if he was wondering if he should continue and added more seriously: "I will not ask for your help. I understand your position and that you have to do your duty, so it is fine. I think it is rather good that people do their jobs diligently. Well, that they at least try. Anyways, I will not hold it against you, but I might not agree to not to break the rules a bit more before I will take my punishment"

"Doubt he would be any help anyways. And what's so good about ratting out on us?" The caramel wolf muttered.

"Yasu, be good now" Sekiya-san said quietly and turned back to face Hajime and the white wolf "I think I am really hungry, so let's hurry back?"

"Me too! I want to eat something juicy or maybe something sweet. Can we eat some dango soon or maybe sake? Maybe if we go the city again?" The white wolf asked and jogged to Sekiya-san's side babbling happily.

Definitely he did not seem to care about the rather gloomy fate awaiting him and whatever the reason was Hajime decided he didn't care either; he had been prepared to drag Sekiya-san back by force or to kill him had he resisted but apparently he was going to go back free willingly and even hurry about it. Maybe he thought he could try and escape on the way back? He followed them to the road, but just as they reached it both the wolves gave a low growl.

"Kazumi!" The caramel wolf barked.

"I saw" Sekiya-san said suddenly serious again and turned around "Saito-san, please, stay there and do not move from that spot. Setsuna go to him" Sekiya-san ordered and the white wolf circled around and ran to sit next to Hajime.

"I order the both of you to stay inside no matter what until I say otherwise" He said lifted two fingers and swiped them in the air in an arch.

Suddenly Hajime found himself in a blue bubble with the giant wolf. She looked at her master but Sekiya-san had already turned around to look down the road. The caramel wolf was standing next to him growling. Hajime took a step forward to look through the blue haziness, but the white wolf got up too and closed his path.

"I can't let you go. Yasu protects Kazumi so I will protect you, but it is better if you stay inside. The barrier will protect us from the ayakashi. You can't see them, sometimes even we can't, but there are five of them further down the road. You should not cause Kazumi any more worries, he is already very tired" the wolf said and glanced at her master and turned to look down at Hajime "If you go outside they will eat you because you have a very nice fragrance about you. Kazumi also knows that, I told him, so you have to be hidden, now that everyone already saw you. They probably came because of all the extra Ki in the forest" The white wolf explained very seriously while looking at the road, she looked down again and grinned "Kazumi's orders are absolute so I will do anything in my power to follow them. If you really are stubborn, I won't mind biting you. I also want to eat you."

Getting rid of the ayakashi was not a difficult task; you needed a purification prayer and then you just had to make sure you exterminated them all. It was simple enough, but it took some concentration and some much of the prayer's spiritual power. Kazumi was not sure if he had it in him anymore and he was really starting to regret not listening to Ran more often. The smaller weaker ayakashi disappeared after the first strike but the two big ones insisted. Kazumi figured they had come to collect what might be left of the power that had created and manipulated the corpse youkai, but had found something more interesting to eat instead. They were not at all stupid and Kazumi was pretty sure the ayakashi had been waiting for them. He should have thought of that. Yasu ripped the other one in shreds and it disappeared and the last one vanished with the purification chant. Feeling slightly relieved Kazumi sank to the ground; his vision was blurred with black dots.

"They are all gone now" Yasu said reassuringly, sat next to him and lowered his head to nudge his shoulder.

"Good, thank you Yasu" Kazumi said and leaned against the wolf's head "Setsuna, come" he added and the white wolf jumped out and ran straight to him.

"Everybody all right?" Kazumi said and lifted his hand to pet the white fur.

"I am fine, Yasu is fine, Kaoru is fine. You are the only idiot who is not fine" Setsuna said pouting.

"I am so sorry" Kazumi said and he started to get up "It should finally be safe to go back. Who is Kaoru and what abou-?" he almost managed to ask, but the last effort took the last of his strength and he fell to the ground unconscious.

It seemed to Hajime that he had been right again. Sekiya-san was not horrible well and just as he reached the two wolves and their master he saw Sekiya falling to the ground. The wolves gave a loud whiny noise and tried nudge the unconscious human around and awake.

"Stop" Hajime said before he remembered to consider the fact that he was talking to huge supernatural wolves or the fact that they might not even listen to him "I will do that" he said.

He took a few steps towards the wolves, but the smaller caramel wolf stepped in front of him growling low and angry. The white wolf pounced next to it.

"Knock it off, Yasu"

"It is his fault"

"Not now. Kazumi is just tired, it is not that serious. He is right, let him trough. Move!" The white one ordered. Still growling the smaller wolf backed off.

Hajime leaned over Sekiya-san and turned him on his back. The onmyouji looked pale, but was breathing normally.

"Don't worry. He is just really tired. He should not have done all that. He will wake up soon" The white wolf said and sat down hanging it head over Sekiya-san.

"It it true? That this happened because he wanted to save my life?" Hajime asked.

"Probably he didn't want, he has to-" the caramel wolf muttered, but the white wolf got up and growled at it.

Apparently they were not going to discuss the matter. Hajime decided it was about time Sekiya-san woke up. They still had to get back to headquarters and by now Serizawa was hopefully dead and all hell was loose.

It didn't happen to him often, but it seemed that if he was very tired and slept very deeply, if he was sick and delirious or apparently unconscious he would see a dream where he was sitting in a very familiar garden. The garden was rather big with especially beautiful maple trees now in flames in the autumn colors. Around the garden was a large house that had stood there for almost two centuries. He had not been born nor raised in that house, but he had come to call it home. He had not been back to it for over five years, still in his dream every single detail was in place and he felt safe and comfy. He was sitting on the north east veranda looking at the pond and the trees, behind the fence were the outskirts of the city of Edo. Next to him sat Okinu. She was wearing a brown and golden kimono, made to resemble her favorite maple trees. It was bit cool and the wind was picking up. Otherwise it was perfectly quiet, even though the busy house should have been bustling with people. Okinu was holding a star map, she had always been reading even in her spare time.

"It doesn't look good, there are very difficult times ahead" She said and smiled a bit.

People had often noted that she had been unfortunately plain to be a daughter and the heir of such a prominent onmyouji family. That she was too frail to make a good wife or a strong head of the family. But no one had ever dared to say one bad word about her skills of divination, for she had never once been wrong. Kazumi had always rather liked her, even before when he was supposed to like her. He had considered himself lucky to get to marry her.

"Difficult for whom?" Kazumi asked.

"For those who stand against change" She said and looked at him worried "But why are you making such a face? Are you maybe dissatisfied with something?"

"Just with myself. Nothing to worry about" Kazumi said.

"Please tell me. Maybe I can help? It is better to share one's difficult thoughts and pain" She said and smiled warmly.

"I was surprised in a battle" Kazumi offered for explanation.

"I see. That is rather unheard of. I would never have thought that the youkai could take you by surprise. Since you are here I take everything did not go well?" Okinu said now concerned.

"Everything is fine. It is not like we are meeting at the Sanzu river. It is just-" Kazumi stopped he was rather embarrassed "I think I made a mistake that brought others in danger"

"Everybody makes mistakes once in a while. Next time you will know" Okinu said calmly.

"But this was not the youkai. I made a much worse mistake than letting some youkai get the better of me. I overestimated myself or I was not careful enough. I let others to come to harm because of me. I was being very selfish"

"You might have forgotten what Gakuto-sama was trying so hard to tech you all those years" Okinu sighed and her ghostly appearance just oozed teasing.

"Don't bring that old man into this. You have no idea how annoying he is. Did you know he send me to Kyoto to hunt down non-existing rasetsu? I think he just wanted to get rid of me" Kazumi muttered.

"Yes, I am aware of that. I think it will be very good for you. If you are complaining how you have forgotten how to protect people then what you should do is to go and protect them. I know it is something that is very difficult to do. You cannot be selfish, but you have to be very strong for them also and think of their needs before your own. Most of the time you will not even get as much as a thank you" Okinu said with enthusiasm "I think you spend too much time sitting by yourself and ignoring people".

"I was not sitting by myself. I was working" Kazumi said a bit hurt.

"Working hard is one thing and I do not say that you didn't do well. I am saying that maybe you should do something else also. When you were living with Gakuto-sama again, how many days could pass that you did not speak to anyone? Setsuna and Yasu do not count, nor Gakuto-sama" Okinu asked very sharply.

"I don't remember" Kazumi said grumpily "But not so many people are around in the night time".

"I thought so. Don't pretend that you are fine just by yourself" Okinu said seriously.

"I may not be, but I was fine before. It is all your fault. You died"

"I told you I would. It is your fault for ignoring me telling it to you" Okinu said stingingly and Kazumi could not help but flinch.

They sat a moment in silence, looking at the maple trees. It suddenly seemed like there was someone there, just under the trees crouching over something.

"Oh? Who is that?" Okinu asked curious. Kazumi had to look really close to see clearly as the figure was only half visible. Then he suddenly recognized the slim outline wrapped in a black kimono.

"How is it possible? How did he do that?" Kazumi asked mostly just because he could not bring his own mind to catch up.

"Well, this seems like a very interesting development" Okinu giggled and smiled wryly "I am so happy I was right after all" she said and winked.

"What is that supposed to mean!" Kazumi demanded, but she just smiled that gentle smile that meant he was not to hear.

"I think you have been dreaming enough now. There is someone here for you. I think you should go back and wake up" Okinu ordered and with that Kazumi was dumped back into the real world and the pain started.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Some sort of explanation chapter I guess. Also I am really sorry about the long wait! _

Chapter 5. The art of observation

The gray morning light was already a bit cool and the air still fresh, even though the day would most likely turn out to be warm. There were no sight of clouds in the sky and the wind was mild. It was still early and the back garden was rather quiet, save for the sounds of Heisuke and Harada bickering in the kitchen.

"You know, it is bad taste to be happy that someone died" Souji was saying from the veranda somehow perfectly balanced between sitting and slumping against the pillar.

"It is not like I don't know that you are happy to get rid of me, but you could try to hide it a little. I will be hurt" He continued after a while "Well, just to make sure you won't feel lonely I will come and visit you in your new room" he said with a smirk. It was not that Hajime could see it on his face, but he was sure he could _hear _it.

Having had so much practice it was rather easy to ignore Souji. Sometimes it seemed that ever since they had met for the first time it had been Souji's soul intention to see what he could say or do to really annoy Hajime. He had only really managed once and Hajime was pretty sure he had not even noticed. What he found much more difficult to ignore was the huge white wolf staring at him silently and intently with two amber and green eyes. It was especially hard because he really had to; it was painfully clear that Souji could not see the youkai sitting on the grass. Hajime was beginning to hope that he couldn't either; it was no use anyways. Ever since he had returned to the headquarters with Sekiya-san the wolf had been following him everywhere. But it was not just the wolf. Those things were all over; sitting in the corners, asleep on top of the shelves, hiding under the buildings. Talking and being very and unnecessarily noisy, the youkai seemed to be more alive and more numerous than the people living in the house. Well save for the wolf, which had become suspiciously wolf like and had not uttered a word ever since yesterday night. Hajime had tried to find out what it thought it was doing and why was it following him but to no avail. He was starting to hope he had never seen any of it. Still, he could not bring himself to cut the red string; it felt like turning his back to them and inviting them to attack him, besides he was rather curious to know more. He had gone to see Sekiya-san the in the evening yesterday to ask him about the red string and to at least command the wolf youkai to leave him alone. But it seemed that after arriving back Sekiya-san had been sound asleep for the whole day and gotten himself sick with a fever while at it. Surprisingly enough Hajime had not had the heart to wake him up; it was either that or the fact that the wolves always following Sekiya-san around had been murderously glaring at him the whole time. During this time he had noticed something interesting about the youkai; they were very strictly bound by rules and commands. The white wolf for example never followed him inside a building, still it was always there waiting for him, even after he had tried purposefully deceive and elude it. He was curious as to why had Sekiya-san ordered the wolf to tail him and why was the wolf so intent to keep quiet. Was it supposed to spy on him? If he was so interested in the Shinsengumis's business wouldn't spying Hijikata-san be much more productive? Unless of course he had-

"What's wrong?" Souji asked curious "For a moment I thought you were spacing out" he said.

"Nothing" Hajime said and headed to the main house. He would have time before breakfast and the rounds if he didn't finish his practice.

"Where are you going?"

"To see Sannan-san" Hajime told him while passing by.

"What about breakfast? You know, it is not my turn today. It might just be edible" Souji called out to his back.

Because of his position in the group Sannan-san enjoyed having the privilege of a nice big room in the main house with a view of the inner garden. He didn't come here that often, but Hajime remembered the room being rather packed. It seemed that Sannan-san had thought the room was too spacious and solved the problem by filling all the excessive space with books that he had brought with him from Edo. Hajime rapped the door and waited. He was pretty sure the place even smelled like ink and paper.

"Yes?"

"I am sorry to disturb you. Do you have a moment?"

"Ah, Saito-kun. Yes, please come in" Sannan-san said, he was sitting in front of his desk with an open book "Good morning" he said brightly.

"Good morning" Hajime answered.

He looked over Sannan-san through the window to the inner yard. The white wolf was not sitting there looking at him curiously. The only way to access the inner garden was to enter the house and go through it which the youkai could not do. But then how did it always manage to track him?

"Do you want me to close the window?" Sannan-san said and actually got up to do it himself "Are you maybe getting a cold?" he inquired as if he would be really happy to give Hajime something for it.

Hajime shook his head; as if he was going to let himself get a cold.

Closing the window probably did not much help against keeping the conversation a secret if the youkai really were curious to know what was being said. They seemed to have an eerie way to appear in unexpected places. The fact that you could not see them obviously did not mean they weren't there, even if you were supposed to see them.

"What brings you here this early?" Sannan-san asked.

"I would like to hear what you know about the onmyouji and exterminating youkai".

It was after dinner when Hajime concluded that he was not needed anymore and made his way to the rooms that housed the lower ranking members of the Shinsengumi. He found Maeda and the other members of his unit eating dinner but there was no Sekiya-san. Apparently this was not such an unusual state of things though. Maeda was eager to help, it seemed that he and the others were convinced Sekiya had lost it and wandered off having a fever and heavens know what can happen to him now. It was a little unclear to Hajime how they had failed to stop him from leaving but he was also pretty sure he didn't really care. The unit members pointed him towards the vegetable garden as it was the direction Sekiya was thought usually to disappear to. Hajime was inclined to believe this as the wolf youkai seemed eager to go too, it kept on running ahead of him and stopping impatiently to wait every now and then. Needless to say though, it did not tell if they really were going to the right direction at all. The buildings the Shinsengumi stayed in were the newest, but there were also some that had belonged to the house and then later on abandoned. Behind the houses there was a rice field that had been changed into a vegetable garden. On the far end of the garden was a house that had belonged to the farmer of the field, but had then been converted into a small shrine and was now a rather forgotten shack. It was the caramel wolf Hajime saw first; it was pretty difficult to miss something that big and unnatural. It was sitting there in front of the house looking towards them as they approached. Sekiya-san was sitting on the veranda and leaning against the wall looking messy. He had his hair down and he was wearing his uniform on top of his green kimono and a winter coat that looked like it had been bought from a second hand shop. It seemed he was fast asleep. The caramel wolf leaned over the veranda to nudge his master awake, which apparently was not so difficult to do as Sekiya-san lifted his face almost immediately to look directly at the white wolf and Hajime.

"Hello!" the white wolf exclaimed "We came to see how you are!" it announced and happily bounced over the distance between the house and Hajime.

_Now_ it talks, Hajime thought a bit bitterly.

"Why are you here?" the caramel wolf asked suspicious.

"I told you. We came to see how you are doing. I heard Kazumi was still sick" the white one said while licking Sekiya-san's face and hands.

"Setsuna, stop it. Sit, please" He said a bit distressed "I thought I told you to be good. You were-"

"Yes. I have been a really good girl. I have been totally quiet and totally protective!" the wolf assured leaning its front paws on the veranda, it jumped down and jogged to stand next to Hajime "Look, Kaoru is still alive!"

"Yes, I can see that. Very good" Sekiya-san said, he sounded a little like someone who gave up a long time ago. He looked up to face Hajime "Good evening" he said a bit like people who were not too happy to see you.

He was actually a bit surprised to see Setsuna and Saito-san. He had explicitly told Setsuna not to come to him unless it was absolutely necessary and not to leave Saito-san's side. The fact that they were there now had to mean that it was actually Saito-san who wanted to see him, not only Setsuna and somehow that was not all that reassuring thought. Kazumi wondered if Saito-san had come to find him to finally deliver his punishment for breaking the rules. Or maybe Setsuna had managed to annoy him so much that he had come to ask for getting rid of her. Or both; for he definitely did not seem to have come to enjoy a social visit.

"I was led to believe you are not feeling well" was the answer Kazumi got and it was delivered rather curtly.

"It is alright, just having a slight fever"

"So, you thought that in order to cure it you sit outside for a few hours?" Saito-san asked perfectly flatly.

"Ah, well actually I am not sitting here in order to get better" Kazumi admitted.

"Are you sitting here to stay sick? To avoid your duties? That kind of behavior could be seen as rather cowardly" Saito-san observed and sat down next to Kazumi.

"No, not at all. I do want to get healthy again. I just wanted to get out of the house. It is really noisy there. I couldn't sleep. I swear I am not trying to escape performing my duties" Kazumi promised, but he doubted it made much of an impression to his companion.

Saito-san had an ability to say things that were not only usually true but also rather direct. It seemed to Kazumi that he was either not horribly interested in saving people's feelings or aware that he was being scary. He also managed to do this with no tone whatsoever but it was also equally difficult to see what he was thinking or feeling from his face. Kazumi had been wondering already for a few weeks if Saito-san even had a sense of humor for he could bet his fortune he had never once seen a smile on his face. But there was no way someone could be that serious, besides sometimes Kazumi had the feeling he wasn't but people just failed to notice. To find out the truth about Saito-san was apparently a very time consuming mission. Kazumi received no answer and he turned to look at the field in front of them. It had been turned into a vegetable garden by Hijikata-san to help the Shinsengumi to gather some extra food supplies as they had been practically begging for food and barely making it the first summer they had spent in Kyoto. He rather liked the vegetable garden plan; it was practical and gave the men something more to do. There was hardly any time to get bored, or to get extra sleep if you didn't get it during the night.

"Can I help you with something?" Kazumi asked after a while because he was pretty sure Saito-san had not bothered to come and see him for company.

"I am not sure. Is it possible to stop it from following me?"

"Stop what? Ah, you mean Setsuna? Yes, tomorrow at midnight I promise she will be nowhere to be seen" Kazumi promised.

"Why only tomorrow?"

"I was hoping three days is enough for them to lose the scent. I am sorry if she bothers you. I told her explicitly not to talk to you unless it was an emergency and to stay outside of the house. Did she figure out how to disobey the command?" Kazumi asked rather curious.

"Why is it following me?" Saito-san asked rather than answering.

"Just in case they did follow us I asked her to protect you. Or maybe it is more like prevent you from being eaten. She can't really kill them if there is many, but she can call me and if there is only one she can get rid of it. I wanted to tell you about it, but I think I was not really having a horribly clear state of mind the night before yesterday. Sorry" Kazumi was pretty sure he had meant to mention it. He was sure Saito-san did not appreciate being stalked or liked the idea of being protected. He was not really someone who seemed like he was in the need of anyone's protection. Well, no wonder he didn't seem pleased with the whole thing. Another curious point, that could be investigated.

"You know you don't have to talk to him like I am not here, it is really rude. I mean it is not like you can't see me. I have behaved myself perfectly fine over the last three days even though it was horribly boring" Setsuna said and shook herself.

"Setsuna, I am sor-"

"I am not talking to you. Besides you should be sorry less often. Even though it is almost unbelievable but not everything is you fault, pretty many things, but not everything. And if you are curious I didn't come up with a way to get around the command. I didn't even try" Setsuna said and grinned to herself.

It left Kazumi to wonder what had Saito-san done to annoy Setsuna so much that she had not even tried to go against such a harsh command as to not to talk to anyone. It was getting very interesting, but also rather unnerving. He could definitely see in his aura that he created no warm or friendly thoughts in Saito-san. Actually, he felt like he was scrutinized and suspected even more now than before.

"And what are these things that are supposed to eat me?" Saito-san asked unfazed.

"The ayakashi from the night before. You were inside the border and I think they must have got a whiff of you. I know it is all really confusing" Kazumi said wondering if Saito-san had finally realized what an odd situation he was in, but he just received a steady, slightly expectant stare "I have been told that you smell really good. I can't tell. I don't get the urge to eat people. Usually nice smelling people die young if no one is there to protect them. Some can go unnoticed from the youkai, but being inside the border probably made it worse, like amplified the smell or something. Because there had to be a reason for them to come at us like that; I am really sure they weren't after me, I mean they are not stupid" Kazumi said and shrugged.

He looked at Saito-san who seemed a bit unconvinced or maybe Kazumi imagined it, people didn't usually take these things horribly well. He was wondering if he was expected to explain the whole thing to a detail or if Saito-san was going to just believe him without any questions like before. Kazumi had to admit it was a bit weird. Usually people who were unfamiliar about the youkai didn't take things like a possible future as a meal horribly calmly. Some outright had told Kazumi he was crazy and a few had tried to kill him after he had tried to help them with their consent. That was why he usually didn't ask for the consent, but Saito-san didn't seem even horribly interested; more like slightly bothered. Kazumi was beginning to think maybe there was something a bit odd about him.

"What is it?"

"Are you just going to believe me? Don't you want to know something, ask something?" Kazumi asked a bit skeptical "I mean I don't mind telling. Well as long as you won't hit me with a broom or sharp objects afterwards" He added just in case. Saito-san was really talented when it came to sharp objects.

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know. That is what I also asked, but it seems that it is not really explainable. Probably the explanation is scary and my fault as I was the one doing the telling. Never mind, I was just checking"

"I would not mind hearing it to the detail. I am not sure if I should believe you without any proof though. But there is something else I would like to discuss first" Saito-san said decided and it made a bad feeling jolt Kazumi's spine.

"Alright. I guess you can always at least ask right? I will see if I will answer"

"Why did you join the Shinsengumi?" Saito-san asked flatly.

"You doubt my willingness to protect the city and the people?" Kazumi asked back.

"No, I do not. But you don't need the group's help to do that. You are more than capable of doing it by yourself and I would say that is what you have been doing before joining. Protecting people appears to be what your work is. It seems to me that joining the Shinsengumi is actually a hindrance for your work and for you to carry out your duties as an onmyouji. You certainly do not need to join the group like some nor do I think you much care about the politics either" Saito-san explained.

"That must be longest speech I have ever heard from you this far. Unless you count that instructions string to Maeda-kun last week, I think he was so surprised that he probably didn't hear a word" Kazumi thought out loud surprised.

"Are you trying to change the subject?" Saito-san asked perfectly serious.

"No, sorry. I guess you are right. You think I am rather suspicious" Kazumi said defeated, but it didn't seem to be an adequate answer.

"That is a not an answer to my question" Saito-san pointed out patiently.

"I know. Sorry. I guess I rather not answer your question if you don't mind" Kazumi said apolitically.

"I do mind"

"In that case, tell me why you want to know. You must suspect something. It is not like many people have that good of a reason in the end. Mostly people are just curious, or don't have anywhere to go. How you arrived to these conclusions anyways? Then I will tell you why I joined. I swear. If you think I am a real onmyouji, you should know I can't make empty promises" Kazumi said smiling. He was pretty sure he did not convince Saito-san at all nor gain any regard.

"It does not really make a difference even if you weren't one. It is all rather simple and not a secret, so I can tell you. To begin with you do not try at all. But you are much better than you let people think, still appearing rather useless. I cannot fathom as to why you would pretend to be much less skilled than you are if there is no gain? Actually, you only serve to lose; those with talent are more likely to get promoted and receive higher pay and other incentives to perform well. That is why I suspect that you wished to not draw any extra attention to yourself. That in itself is rather suspicious. Truth to be told I do not understand why you would join" Saito-san said and thought for a moment "All the other reasons aside, you don't even need the money or the food. So I find it all rather suspicious"

"How do you know I don't need the money?" Kazumi asked much more curious now and pretty desperate. There was no hope Saito-san was not going to think him unsuspicious. He had figured Kazumi out in a course of few hours.

"There are two things. First, your swords. They are worth a few fortunes. You could always say you stole them, but why did you not sell them then. Instead you have had them for a very long time; you have learned to use them to almost perfection. That takes time and asks for devotion. Then again, maybe you need them for exterminating the youkai and can't sell them. But you also had this" Saito-san said and lifted the omamori and rosary from underneath his clothes "I thought at first that it is just some worthless bauble, given how easily you gave it away, but it turns out not to be. It is probably rather valuable. I don't know as much about rosaries as swords, but I am sure that if I sold this I could get at least as much as the two of us get paid the whole year. Sannan-san seems to agree with me" Saito-san said.

"You would get much more than that if you sell it to the foreigners. They like stuff like that. Especially things that have jade in them and that are old" Kazumi said a bit halfheartedly.

"Yet, this too you did not sell. Probably because you have had it for a long time; the incense in the omamori is old but you smell of it, also you knew exactly where to find it around your neck. Or maybe because it was important, a departure gift from someone close to you or maybe you received it from someone after their death? Like a memento" Saito-san said indifferently.

"What makes you say that?" Kazumi asked surprised and a bit disturbed.

"This" Saito-san said and turned the rosary a bit towards Kazumi.

He didn't really have to see it. He knew it was there.

"Your name is etched in the beads. I really doubt that you would have done it yourself. It has been worn for a long time after the inscription was made, the beads are worn out around it and it is fading away slightly. You have another rather worn out rosary around your wrist, which I am guessing is your own originally, so it is not like you needed two. You could have sold the other also" Saito-san said and slid the rosary back under his clothes "So, you could just say you need the money, but I would not really believe that either. Sannan-san told me that the general understanding is that onmyouji are not allowed to take rewards from people who are in need of their help, unless they are asked to perform tasks that are not thought of as absolutely necessary. So most onmyouji have other professions if there are no requests for their services" Saito-san continued.

"Maybe I figured this would be a good profession then" Kazumi said, he was about to lose interest in being friendly, the conversation was way too serious for that. He was rather surprised and also a bit worried.

"Maybe, but I don't really think it is that. You used to do something else. You are rather old to be starting from the beginning. You are not used to fighting human opponents and you know things that suggest that you received a very good education" Saito-san said, apparently not aware he was being insensitive.

"Why would you say that then?" Kazumi asked; he was now more than just a bit troubled about the whole conversation.

"You cited an uninteresting part of the _Five classics_ to Maeda and the others. It takes a long time to read them and a good teacher and there is absolutely no reason to know the uninteresting parts if someone was not very serious about the teaching. Nowadays it is rather common that teachers only emphasize the most well known parts. This on its turn suggests that your family has the means and the money to get very able private teachers. I expect that you went to a han school in Edo?" Saito-san said calmly. Kazumi decided to be quiet for a moment and think.

"Are you maybe stalking me?"

"I have no obligation to answer that, but I do not stalk people"

"You sure?"

"I have done what I promised. Now you should tell me what you promised"

"You know if we ever survive to times that do not ask for people killing each other; I think you should make it your work to find out about people and their motives. I think you would be really good at it" Kazumi said and sighed "Alright. I promised, so…I came to Kyoto because I was sent here by my master. I am here to look for someone, but I have not been able to find the person yet. He is thought to be very dangerous. So I thought I should do something while at it. He is probably a criminal so I thought that maybe as a member of the Shinsengumi I would be more likely to find him" Kazumi explained.

"You could have just said you needed a profession to cover up for the one that has been made illegal" Saito-san suggested.

It was not clear to Kazumi if he had believed him. He almost hoped that Saito-san hadn't, he almost felt bad for lying to him. Then again, maybe he was saying that Kazumi should tell better lies. Kazumi had not really expected him to be aware of the law making the practicing the onmyoudo illegal but then again he seemed to know or lot of other things he probably shouldn't.

"Do you know that much about everybody or is it just me?" Kazumi asked. He couldn't really help himself.

"I know much more about other people. I do not pay that much attention to you" Saito-san answered. So harsh Kazumi though, and so lucky if it was true. "There is one thing though that I am curious to know. Is the issue with the youkai from the night before solved?" Saito-san continued with a slight interest.

"No. I still have to find the ones who made and commanded them. I have not really been up to it yet. Anyways, I will try to find them soon. Don't worry. The kitsune are looking for them and to make sure there are no new corpses moving around. They are probably guised as humans and like pretty much all the youkai only come out at night in their true forms. I guess I will have to break the rules some more and go find them myself" Kazumi said a bit depressed. If it wasn't for the fever he could have tracked them down already. He received no answer and for a moment he somehow expected Saito-san to leave. For a moment he just sat there and Kazumi was not sure if he was expected to do something.

"Are you not curious to know about your punishment?" Saito-san said rather suddenly.

"Well, I was hoping maybe you forgot about that" Kazumi said. It was not true at all, but one can always be hopeful that good things happen.

The younger man turned to look at him with a blank expression. Kazumi wondered if he had missed the joke or if Saito-san just thought it was really bad and wished to point out, bad jokes were not acceptable behavior.

"For the next two weeks Harada and Souji are assigned with patrolling the east side of the city. You should accompany them. They are doing the night rounds. It will be your punishment. I also expect you to take part to the practice and improve and to come to the patrols with your own unit. Also you are to stop pretending to be skilless and take more responsibility in the group. It is a waste of talent" Saito-san said a bit more formally and managed to surprise Kazumi. He looked at Saito-san for a moment expecting him to change his mind.

"You are aware that you are doing me a favor right? That this does not feel like getting punished at all. You are helping me" Kazumi said but he was apparently not really convincing. He had to say this was rather unexpected and that he was really curious as to why this was happening to him.

"I am merely making you perform duties the others do not have to do. They will think you are being punished. Which you are" Saito-san said "Yamazaki saw you leaving that night so there has to be a punishment" he continued.

"I see. So I should get caught from breaking the rules more often. Should I confess to you all the other times I broke them?"

"I would say you would be pushing your luck" Saito-san said rather sharply.

"Never mind then" Kazumi said smiling. He got ignored again.

Saito-san got up to leave when Kazumi though of a question he wanted answered.

"May I make a question?"

"You can always at least ask" Saito-san said perfectly flatly. He didn't sound like it, look like it or anything but at that moment Kazumi was sure he knew it for certain. Saito-san was utterly and entirely not what he seemed. Kazumi found it to be extremely fascinating and funny.

"Do you ever lie?" Kazumi asked looking up.

"You get caught from lying" Saito-san said in a matter of fact way and got Kazumi thinking if this was revenge for him avoiding questions earlier.

"I think you are right. One usually does get caught from lying. It is a bad habit. Avoiding questions is a suspicious one, do you practice that often?" Kazumi asked but Saito-san had stepped down from the veranda and was ignoring him "I will ask something easier next time" he promised.

"Next time?" Saito-san asked.

"Well, you are a bit stuck with me aren't you? I am sure I will see you again at some point. Probably tomorrow. I mean aren't you curious to know about the red string or about the ayakashi?" Kazumi asked, but Saito-san had started to walk towards the houses "Good night!" He called after him.

To fulfill her commands Setsuna got up also and turned to go too.

"Setsuna come here quickly" Kazumi said and the wolf came to him and looked at him a bit curious "I lift the commands about protecting Saito-san, but try to behave?" He said and rubbed the soft ears.

"I always behave" She said and liked his face and jogged off "Good night Kazumi! Try to get better" she called out as she jogged to catch up with Saito-san.


	6. Chapter 6

Many Thanks to Rythm15 and Titeseve : ) Also Sorry again for the wait, what can I say school and parents in law are a deadly combination. I will try to correct my ways. Also I have now fixed, hopefully the typos and spelling mistakes from the earlier chapters for which I apologize, but since I pretty much do this in the middle of the night there is no way I won't make some more soon. If there is anything, inconsistencies, mistakes, typos or just general opinions/improvement thoughts etc. feel free to tell! It is very much appreciated.

This chapter is a bit useless, but hopefully you like it.

Chapter 6. A day off.

It was a very calm and quiet midday. The grass on the banks of the watering canal was still fresh and comfy to lie on even though autumn was taking its firm steps to enter the lives of people again. The wind was getting cold, but there was no sign of clouds in the sky. It was rare day off and Kazumi had figured he should spend it not doing anything. He had been very busy for the last two weeks and felt like he deserved to just lie in the sun for a moment, not having to do what other people wanted him to do. He was rather pleased with himself. It was not just that he had survived the rather harsh punishment set out for him, but he had also made good use of the favor Saito-san had, with good will or not, done for him. The corpse youkai were gone as were their masters. Finding them had been much easier when you didn't have to lurk around in hiding. Exterminating them had been the easy part and surprisingly Kazumi had found unexpected help. He had been almost sure there were absolutely no onmyouji in Kyoto. The idea was absurd but by the looks of it and how the city was left almost unprotected, it had not seemed so unbelievable. But then a week ago he had been proven wrong in his assumptions. He was not sure by whom, but he knew she was a very refined lady by the way she had talked and been dressed. By mere accident he had found an ayakashi that had possessed a young woman, one of the three raising the corpse youkai. It had been while doing the rounds with Okita-san and his unit. Setsuna who had accompanied them had scented her out and Kazumi had gone after her as she had tried to flee only to find her dead and the ayakashi exterminated and a strange lady waiting for him in a rather unpleasant back alley. She had only been interested if Kazumi was responsible for destroying the other ayakashi and the corpse youkai and in his name. She had not given Kazumi hers. Other than that meeting, hunting the youkai and Serizawa-sensei's funeral, Kazumi's life had been extremely uneventful and pleasant. There was only one thing that bothered Kazumi; the not-to-be-found rasetsu. It was not like he _wanted _to find any. He didn't feel like he was in any need of additional work and definitely he didn't feel like unnecessarily killing people, but it was rather impossible that something like that could go unnoticed for a long time. Or more like it was not supposed to be possible.

"_What is wrong?" _Setsuna asked yawning. She was pretending to be a dog and was lying next to Kazumi in the sun.

"Nothing is wrong. Unfortunately, that is what's wrong" Kazumi said, he felt somehow annoyed about it all. Like slightly offended.

"_You were biting your lips. Something is bothering you. So, let me guess. Either it is the mystery onmyouji-san we met or more likely now that we got rid of the moving corpses you are back to wondering why there are no rasetsu. I told you, we can't find any so there aren't any"._

"It would definitely seem like that" Kazumi agreed. There was no fighting against life's simple truths anyways.

"_I don't understand why we had to come here. We should just go back home. I miss Little-Mother and her food. And she always has sake. And Hiromi-chan picks all the annoying stuff out of my fur, she understands me" _Setsuna complained.

"But even if we go home, we will be sent right back here to find out why is it that there are _no_ rasetsu. Because I do not know" Kazumi sighed.

"_Well it is pretty simple. No one made any. See, problem solved"_ Setsuna pointed out and yawned again.

"Yes, that is true, but the next question is, why not if they have the means? Maybe they weren't going to or they changed their minds? Maybe they don't know what it is?" Kazumi said and watched a lonely rag of a cloud sail across the blueness.

"_You are barking at the wrong tree here, how should I know?" _Setsuna grinned clearly happy about her joke _"Besides who are they?"_

"Aren't I always" Kazumi sighed again and got up feeling unusually rested "I don't know. If I knew that I would go and ask them or more like to tell them to throw away the stuff while they are still alive" Kazumi sighed again and looked down at the white dog looking creature "I am getting way too sleepy and comfortable here. If I don't get up now, I am sure we will miss lunch and dinner like this"

"_Hmmm, yes that would be a shame. But if it was really coming to that I would definitely wake you up. Let's go to the front yard. The little ones are there and maybe also that one who is always happy. He also plays with the little ones. I want to go play with them. They are really nice" _Setsuna suggested happily.

"The little ones? The Yagi children? You are not planning on eating them or anything right?" Kazumi asked half serious.

"_What is that supposed to mean? They are innocent, besides I do not eat children" _Setsuna moped.

"Is that so? So when we met for the first time what was it exactly that you and Yasu were doing, because if my memory serves me right, it seemed to me like you were trying to _eat_ me" Kazumi said.

"_You just can't get past that can you? Didn't you end up winning? Aren't we contracted to you? Not to mention you are still alive" _Setsuna growled at him.

"Yes, lucky me" Kazumi sad as dryly as he could, but he did actually mean it. He knew Sestsuna knew this too. They had been together long enough to know such things.

It turned out that Setsuna had been right; the Yagi children and a girl from a neighboring house were playing on the front yard and were indeed delighted to receive an additional playmate. It was not clear to Kazumi why Setsuna liked the children, but if she was not planning on eating them it was probably all right. The children also seemed ridiculously happy; they were taking turns riding on the wolf's back and throwing around a ball that they all tried simultaneously to catch. Kazumi had to admit he was a bit jealous; Setsuna was probably hundreds of years old, but had the ability to be perfectly silly and happy about the playing and the game of catching the ball. People seemed to lose that ability as they grew old and started to concentrate on much more complicated things that were usually no fun at all. Kazumi went to sit on the grass at the corner of the main building and leaned on a tree. It was almost as comfy as the canal bank had been. Well, if he really did fall asleep Sestuna would probably really wake him up. Kazumi vaguely heard a piece of a conversation about calligraphy, favors and lunch and he thought he recognized the voice, but he was comfily slipping away. He would have probably fallen asleep, but just at the crucial moment he felt someone's aura approaching him. He opened his eyes to look at Okita-san leaning over to peer at his face.

"Hello" He said brightly "I thought for a moment that you were sleeping" he said and sat down next to Kazumi.

"Me too" Kazumi mumbled defeated. Well, if he wanted to sleep he should have stayed away from here.

"That seems like fun" Okita-san said looking at the children and Setsuna playing tug of war "You don't think Hijikata-san would approve if we had a tournament?" he mused and Kazumi gave a laugh. Apparently not all adults were the same.

"Not sure, he doesn't seem to approve of horribly many things" Kazumi answered.

"That is not true at all. He does approve of them if you are stubborn enough about it. You just have to figure out how to get him to think it is a good idea. Sometimes it is really difficult. He just likes to seem like he doesn't enjoy things. Though tug of war might not work out after all" Okita-san smiled and looked around "This is a nice spot you have found. Well, I like sitting in the sun also" he said and looked up under the tree.

It seemed to Kazumi that no matter the situation you could not extract negative or sad comments from Okita-san. He had been making the rounds with Okita-san's unit for the past two weeks and learnt as much during the first day. Other members in the group gossiped about him being a really scary teacher but other than that he seemed perfectly happy go lucky. There was not always all that much sense in what he said and it was a bit unclear if he was serious at all times. Kazumi was pretty sure he was one of the nicest human beings he had ever met as long as there were no reasons present not to be nice.

"It is nice here, but I hope it doesn't take forever. I am a bit hungry. I am waiting for Hijikata-san to finish lecturing Hajime-kun. I owe him so I promised to buy lunch for him" Okita-san was saying and leaned also against the tree.

"That's a bit unexpected. I thought Saito-san would be someone who never gets lectured" Kazumi said genuinely surprised. He really could not imagine Saito-san being mischievous. Well, unless it was needed to be perfect at something.

"Ah, well. That is kind of my fault. That's why I owe Hajime-kun. Hijikata-san is lecturing him about how doing favors to me is not helping me at all but letting me get away with things that I should be getting better at. He has been like that always. He nags about things and fusses over people" Okita-san said happily and did not seem at all bothered about the nagging. It sent Kazumi to wonder what it could be Hijikata-san wished to be improved. It didn't seem to Kazumi that Okita-san was so bad at horribly many things either.

"So Saito-san gets lectured because you did something that Hijikata-san did not approve of?" Kazumi asked. He was a bit lost on the logic. He was sure there had to be some since it involved Hijikata-san.

"Yup"

"But aren't you even around the same age, it is not like he is supposed to babysit you or something?" Kazumi asked to get closer to the part where it all would start to make sense to him.

"Hajime-kun? He is two years younger than me. Though, it does not stop him from nagging about things to me. But he brought it on himself. It is all because he rewrote my reports that he gets lectured. Hijikata-san especially told him not to. He thinks my writing is not too good and he wants me to improve it. He doesn't think it is proper for a bushi to have unreadable handwriting. But his assistants can't read it so they came to Hajime-kun to ask what they should do to be able to write down my report. He helps them sometimes to do all that stuff so I think he felt bad for them and wrote it. It is just that Hijikata-san is sneakier and he checked the reports and that is how Hajime-kun got caught for the first time doing it" Okita-san said almost laughing "So in order that not to happen he made sure the reports were written and stored at the same night, so that there would be no report written by him, just my original and the new one by the assistants. Then three days ago, I forgot to mention something, I think it was the location where we saw those men. The ones gathered at that teahouse? So I wanted to add that and left the note to Hijikata-san's assistants, but I forgot to tell Hajime-kun about it. So this time, they could not find Hajime-kun and they didn't know about the whole thing even so they went to Hijikata-san with their problem of not being able to read my note and that is how Hijikata-san figured out that I didn't really improved my calligraphy yet. So that is how Hajime-kun got caught for the second time and got lectured by Hijikata-san" Okita-san finished smiling.

"I see. I guess that kind of makes sense" Kazumi said.

"Hajime-kun even tired to teach me how to write legibly, but it didn't really work out. It is sooo boring and Hijikata-san has this really weird idea about good handwriting, his is like a girl's" Okita-san said and now laughed.

"It is perfectly impossible to teach someone who doesn't want to learn" Saito-san said a bit dryly.

He had come from the direction of the house and Kazumi turned around to see him standing on the edge of the grass. Kazumi had sensed him standing there, but he had not actually expected him to take part in the conversation. After the time he had met Saito-san while still having a fever he had not really talked to him during the past two weeks. They had been doing the rounds and practice together, but there were always others around. Then again it didn't seem like Saito-san was horribly interested to continue the conversation they had been having two weeks ago, at least he had not come to find Kazumi, well not that he had any spare time for a lengthy conversation.

"Hajime-kun, sit down for a moment. I am trying to convince Sekiya-san to follow us to have lunch. The more the merrier, right?" Okita-san announced. Saito-san didn't say anything, just nodded and sat on his other side. He turned to look at the children and Setsuna and also Okita-san looked at them.

"That is your dog right, Sekiya-san?"

"More or less" Kazumi said. He was not sure if Setsuna was really _his_ and she definitely was not really a dog.

"Two weeks ago Hajime-kun told me he thinks you are an onmyouji. I thought about it and about that dog of yours, following you around. It is apparently illegal now so I thought I should not ask in case people over hear. Is it any fun?" Okita-san asked perfectly innocently.

"No. Not really. It is work" Kazumi said quietly "But I guess I don't really know what else to do and if no one else can, then it is my duty to do it. I was brought up to be one and it is not like I can get rid of the Kenki anyways. Well, I will at least always have some company if I want to, but it is kind of lonely also people think you are scary or dangerous and when I was a kid it was not too much fun" Kazumi said.

"Why not? Too much studying, you didn't get to play?" Okita-san asked like a conspirator.

"Yeah, that too. But mostly because you get picked on a lot for seeing stuff no one else sees. I was also pretty dumb as a child; I kept insisting that the youkai and what not really were there" Kazumi said thinking back and amused at his stubbornness and smiled "Well, luckily I learned how to hide that, but it took me some time" he added.

"Oh, I never thought about that" Okita-san said and grinned "Well, I guess better late than never. You could have fooled me, ne Hajime-kun?" He said, but received no answer again. Instead Saito-san was looking, rather expressionlessly at Kazumi. Not sure if he was imagining it or if it was for real, he though he saw a slight change of color in his aura, but it disappeared and Saito-san apparently lost interest and turned to look at the children again.

"Still though, thank you for the consideration. I don't want to get arrested again" Kazumi continued smiling.

"You got arrested?" Okita-san asked curious.

"Just once. It was not all that interesting or anything, just boring. It is easy enough to prove you are not an onmyouji" Kazumi said a bit amused at the memory.

"_Oh, also the happy one is here. That is nice. He also smells rather good" _Setsuna mused as she jogged towards the tree. The children were leaving to go home to eat and Setsuna had been left without her company. _"Take those things off from my fur Kazumi, they are itchy" _Setsuna commanded and came to lie next to Kazumi.

"It is really big for a dog. Where did you get it from?" Okita-san was asking, looking curiously at Setsuna while Kazumi picked twigs from her fur.

"She came to me" Kazumi answered pulling the twigs as carefully as possible.

"_Kazumi? Do you think Kaoru is still mad at us?" _Setsuna asked looking sideways at Saito-san sitting next to Okita-san.

"_I don't know" _Kazumi thought back at her and pulled the last twig out.

"_Why do you think he was mad at us? Was it because the red string? Do you think he found out about the binding spell?" _Setsuna was speculating and looking intently at Saito-san.

"_If he would have found out about it I doubt I would still be alive. I mean, I would have killed me. I think we did something else to annoy him. Maybe he is still mad at us" _Kazumi concluded. He had pretty much given up. It was very likely that he would never find out why he had earned Saito-san's dislike and why he had helped Kazumi so much.

"_I think I will forgive him for being mad at us. He smells so good and he helped us also" _Setsuna said, convinced by her own reasoning she got up and circled to sit next to Saito-san. She lolled down on her belly and rather rudely placed her head on his lap. She closed her eyes happily ignoring that she was not exactly welcome there.

"I think it likes you Hajime-kun!" Okita-san laughed.

"_Kazumi, tell him to scratch my ears"_.

"_Not happening"._

"_Why not? You are being really cruel!"_ Setsuna whimpered back at him.

"_I am going to ignore you now"_ Kazumi promised and was preparing to order Setsuna away from Saito-san. It was not really like ticking him off again was a good idea.

"Does she still like me because she thinks I smell good?" Saito-san asked looking down at Setsuna who was pretending to not to understand. He did not sound too unhappy but rather a bit surprised.

"That would be an odd reason for a dog to like someone. Maybe it wants you to give it treats?" Okita-san suggested.

Not that odd, Kazumi thought to himself. It was no wonder Setsuna found him so interesting. The youkai only ever really went after people who smelled especially nice or good, there was really no point in eating the boring ones. They were never ordinary people; they were usually the smart, gifted and talented ones, the very beautiful or strong ones, the very good or very evil or very unnatural ones that got eaten by the youkai while still children or young. People often misunderstood their deaths and blamed other humans. If eating was not possible the youkai gathered around these people to get small snatches at their Ki. Kazumi was wondering how come Saito-san had survived this long not having been protected like Kazumi had been.

"I guess so" Kazumi answered a bit quietly looking curiously at Saito-san.

Apparently there was something about him that the youkai found delicious, but Kazumi couldn't quite figure out what, it was probably useless to ask Setsuna too, she would not know why a human smelled good to her. "It is alright to ignore her, just push her away. I am sorry that she is such a bother" Kazumi was saying but it was not really necessary.

While he was still talking Saito-san had apparently decided that he didn't find Setsuna that bothersome and that he had some very unpredictable and random liking of white furry beings. He lifted his hand and petted her head. Perfectly happy Setsuna closed her eyes to very shamelessly enjoy herself.

"_I am so happy. I think I will make him my new favorite human" _Setsuna was musing absolutely blissful _"Don't worry though Kazumi, you are still special. You will still be the most annoying, bothersome, stubborn and idiotic human I have ever met"_ Setsuna promised.

"_Thank you, I was worried for a moment" _Kazumi thought back a bit sharply _"You are so easily convinced" _Kazumi pointed out, but Setsuna was not listening to him.

"Alright, it is settled then" Okita-san announced and got up "Sekiya-san will assist me in paying Hajime-kun's lunch today; it is so good and helpful of you to turn up at such opportune moment, just what I needed" he mused while heading towards the gate.

"And go hungry myself? No thank you" Kazumi muttered after him but he got up as well. He gave Setsuna a cold look for being so youkai-like, but she was still pretending she had no clue.

"Just ignore him" Saito-san said suddenly and also got up to Setsuna's great disappointment "He is not serious. He just wants to see your reaction" he continued while he passed and followed Okita-san towards the gate.

"_We will go also, right Kazumi?" _Setsuna asked itching to jog after the two Shinsengumi captains.

"_Sure. I guess we don't really have anything better to do" _Kazumi agreed and Setsuna bounced forward almost immediately after the first syllable.

She ran to jog next to Saito-san's left side and nudged his hand. While in her dog form she was big enough for Kazumi to rest his hand on her head. Apparently Saito-san really did not mind her that much anymore and scratched the soft ears. He was not sure why, but somehow Kazumi was sure this was not how it was supposed to go. He had been sure that he and the Shinsengumi were supposed to eventually end up as enemies; he had come here to dispose of them if they really were involved in creating the rasetsu. Well, it could be useful, Kazumi thought, they might tell something, let something slip by accident. That was of course if either of them knew anything. Considering how Saito-san was not apparently horribly interested in Kazumi being an onmyouji maybe they didn't. Surely he would have been able to put the two things together and they would have tried to get rid of Kazumi? Very self-conscious, Kazumi really hoped the Shinsengumi had nothing what so ever to do with the rasetsu. He rather liked it here and would not mind staying. Feeling a bit too sleepy and way too hungry to try to further understand his situation Kazumi followed his shikigami and the two nice smelling humans to lunch.

They were eating rather well when it came to their usual meals, but very poorly compared to what Kazumi had been used to while living at home. Though there was no way he was even going to think of complaining. Actually getting to eat a meal including meat, even though it was a poor resemblance to nikujaga, was good enough to start with. To top that the sake was much better here than at the headquarters and he felt very happy about the change of diet, scenery and company. Still he was rather wistfully thinking back to a letter he had received from home from Hiromi and Setsuna was not helping either, listing in her head all the things they were missing that Kazumi's sister had had the good grace to list in her latest correspondence.

"You know, I have been meaning to ask" Okita-san disrupted Kazumi's thoughts and forced him to return to reality "Isn't Kazumi a girl's name?"

"Yeah, I think so" Kazumi answered a bit surprised.

He was bit thrown off by the sudden change of subject. Previously Kazumi had been ignoring a very odd conversation which included Okita-san pondering how he ended up with five pairs of socks and what he should do to them, since he really did not need so many for sleeping while Saito-san was insisting very sternly that he did not want them back.

"I told you" Saito-san said flatly, most likely to Okita-san.

"So if you know that, then how is it that you have it and why do you use it?" Okita-san said now much more curious.

"Ah, right. Well, it is not really my name. Or it used to be. When I turned thirteen I received another one that is probably more suitable, but no one ever uses it. Since I am the one who is using it the least I don't really have much say in the matter" Kazumi was saying but he realized his answer was not horribly interesting and thought there was probably no harm in telling the story anyways "The thing is that children born to onmyouji families or who have the Kenki are always given girl names. It is to protect them, but it does not really work anymore because the youkai sort of figured it out and times have changed too much. But it is a very strong tradition. In the old days, only boys would be taught the art of onmuoudou and thus the youkai thought of the female children, even having the Kenki as less dangerous. They would target to boys as they were the future enemy and the heirs to their families. Trying to eat the female children just for their Kenki was probably not appealing enough, so it was thought that having a girl's name and appearance would help the male children to survive until they were thirteen and considered adults. Well that is the reasoning behind it, not sure if it ever worked. For sure it didn't work on me" Kazumi said and wondered yet again why his mother had chosen to follow it, especially since her family had never followed the tradition.

"I see" Okita-san said and looked around to get more sake "There seems to be much to know about the onmyouji. We should eat together more often Sekiya-san and you can tell us all about it"

"If you are that curious you don't really have to bother him" Saito-san pointed out and was even about to continue, but instead turned to look towards the street where the rather loud bang had come from.


	7. Chapter 7

A/n: Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! I realized after some research that other authors add their comments about the reviews that they get to their Authors notes so I figured since I have gotten so nice reviews (thank you super much) I should make the effort and do the same.

**To t42n24t2** Thank you for that thought. I was just reading through 6 and thinking to myself; what's with all the babble…And yup, I figured it would be fair if Kazumi gets to tell something about himself also. Hopefully it leads to an interesting and enjoyable direction, at least I promise to try to deliver that.

**To Titeseve** Thank you so very much! I don't know what else to say really, just that I was very happy to get your review and I am really happy that you like it. And when it comes to time I just feel really bad when it takes me so much time…

Also I just wanted to say (and it is not really necessary to read this so if you want just jump to the chapter), that for the story I use the net my info about Japanese names, so if a name in contemporary society is considered female/male/unisex it is possible that it was not so in the late 19th century when names in many societies were more tightly tied to gender. Also when it comes to the ages of the characters (and since the anime is not very informative about it) I used Wikipedia as reference.

Chapter 7. A day off, continued

It was of course absolutely futile but for a fleeting moment Kazumi was hoping that the sound was a result from something really harmless and normal, like a lonely runaway firework painting the midday sky. Something boring like that would be great; he would be really happy and promised to never ever think badly about food that almost managed to remind him of nikujaga. He looked to his side at the next table only to see people very unaware of any weird noises talking loudly about the bad state of all things. It seemed that also Okita-san had not heard it and was contemplating if they should actually go to the bathhouses next time instead of having lunch. It was so depressing to be hearing noises other people did not hear Kazumi thought.

"I see" Saito-san muttered.

"Huh? Did you say something Hajime-kun?" Okita-san stopped to ask and looked at him curious.

Ah, of course, Kazumi thought, he heard it also and didn't know if everybody else had heard it too. He then remembered Setsuna waiting outside the shop.

"_Setsuna? Are you alright?" _He asked trying not to get up from the table and hurry outside to make sure.

"_Don't be ridiculous. Of course I am alright. I am not saying that it didn't hurt my ears though, they are still ringing. I would like to know if that was really absolutely necessary" _she said a bit grumpy and Kazumi sighed of relief.

"_What happened? Did anyone get hurt?"_

"_Well, I think you heard it as well as I did. But despite the loudness it was entirely harmless. I thought that after something like that at least a higher level ayakashi if not a real devil or something would appear, so I went to the street to look, but there is nothing there. Well, that is not exactly true. There is a hole" _Setsuna reported sounding like she didn't quite believe herself either.

"_What? A hole?" _Kazumi asked perfectly dumbfounded. He was really not expecting that.

"_Yes. A hole. As in lack of soil on a specific almost round spot on the ground. It is a big hole at that too"_ Setsuna observed rather coolly.

"_Was it an explosion?"_

"_I am not sure, but I don't think so. I mean those things make ugly smoke and flames and even uglier holes, but there was just the noise. Not to mention it looks like no one cares. You know, I don't think you will believe me until you come and look. I will come and wait for you at the food place, don't worry no need to hurry. Bring me something to eat will you?" _Setsuna ordered sounding convinced she deserved a reward for her hard work.

Initially he thought it was an explosion of some sort, but the sound was odd, more like something suddenly and very quickly collapsing on itself. What was very bothersome about the sound was that even though seeming to be very loud and destructive, there was no indication of it being harmful or even occurring; no one was screaming, there was no yelling, no unusual hurried movement, no one wondering what just happened. Actually it seemed to be quite the opposite; people in the other tables were sitting perfectly unaware of anything out of the ordinary, continuing their conversations as if nothing had happened. Refusing to accept that he might have imagined something like that, Hajime turned to look at Sekiya-san who seemed suddenly very interested in his surroundings with a slightly depressed and tired look on his face.

I see, Hajime thought, he had not imagined it. Sekiya-san heard it also and was wondering about the same thing.

"Huh? Did you say something Hajime-kun?" Souji asked suddenly.

He had been rambling something about going to the bathhouse to get a proper bath and how the water was too cold to wash with at the headquarters. Hajime did not recollect having had said something about that though.

"Nothing" Hajime answered him.

Curious he turned to watch what Sekiya-san was going to do. He actually looked like he was spacing out and it got Hajime thinking again about him and his shikigami. It seemed to Hajime they had a way to communicate without the need to utter any words or having any other kind of exchange; the dogs were always there very conveniently and seemed to know exactly what to do and what their master wished from them.

"Well, I guess we should head back" Souji declared and was getting up from the table "You didn't finish your sake Hajime-kun" he pointed out.

There was a drop of sake left in the cup and Hajime drank it. It seemed to him Sekiya-san was very eager to go out also; he probably knew something. Hajime followed the two outside where they were greeted by the white dog enthusiastically trying to lead them towards the bridge and the street hawkers selling anything from food and snacks to toys, puppets, souvenirs and jewelry. Sekiya-san was looking also towards the end of the street and the bridge as if trying to figure out what to say to excuse himself and to hurry there. Souji on the other hand seemed unaware of the vendors as well as of the white dog and was starting towards the opposite direction where Mibu was.

"Souji? How is it going with your sister's gift?" Hajime asked taking a few steps to follow him.

He didn't like admitting it, but he was very curious, he wanted to see what it was that was waiting at the end of the street.

"Ah! I totally forgot about Matsu-neechan's gift!" He said a bit dreading "Thank you for reminding me. You don't think Hijikata-san will be mad if we are a bit late? Do you think I could look around just a bit before we go back?" Souji was wondering torn between the two.

"I guess it is fine if you don't take too long" Hajime agreed and watched as Souji made his way towards the street vendors. Also Sekiya-san watched him go and then turned to look at Hajime with an accusing look.

"You think you are pretty clever don't you?" Sekiya-san asked a bit dryly.

"Not really" Hajime said. It didn't have anything to do with being clever but with optimizing.

"How did you know he needs a gift for his sister?" Sekiya-san asked curiously while they made their way through the throng towards the end of street.

"He told me that his sister had a baby and that he wanted to get something for her to congratulate her. He was putting it off last month because he didn't have money, but we just got paid" Hajime said.

"You know, I was wrong when I said that I think you are stalking me. It is not me, it is everybody" Sekiya-san said smiling "Now I am just curious to know why" he added not really asking. Not that Hajime had any intention to answer him anyways.

Even though there were a lot of people it was difficult to miss when they arrived at the end of the street; the hole in the ground was huge. You could have driven a carriage through it easily. Definitely it was not something created by an explosion; the hole was perfectly round, symmetrical and seemed very deep.

"I think I really do want to go home now" Sekiya-san said looking down.

They were sanding about a half a dozen paces from the edge in the middle of the street. It was not really the hole that Hajime was impressed by, it was the fact that people obviously did not see it and more than that it was that they did not fall into it. Perfectly unaware they walked over it as if it was not there.

"I take it is not an ordinary hole. Do you know what it is?" Hajime was forced to ask since there was nothing more than Sekiya-san saw fit to say, he was just staring at the hole as if it had just ruined his day, if not even the whole week.

"Yes" He sighed as if really tired "It is a gate trough space and if we don't have any luck, time. We need to figure out how to destroy it" he said a bit worn out.

"How is it that people do not fall into it?" Hajime asked watching how they just easily walked over the hole "Do you know what's on the other side of the gate? And do you wish to destroy it because you think it is dangerous? Should we not let people to just walk on it?" He asked trying to look closely if there was something in the looming darkness.

It seemed even light did not fall through and that there was no movement and no shadows in the hole, just a feeling of empty space. He turned to look back at Sekiya-san as he failed to provide any answers. He was looking back at him blankly as was the white dog and then he suddenly smiled as if there was something horribly funny that he had just realized.

"I think I was being misled" He just said and made no sense what so ever and then he seemed suddenly slightly distressed "And try to be more worried about the fact that it is not supposed to be there? I mean, if you go through it you go to a totally different place, so it is very worrisome" He just said and nodded to himself "Well, I have a guess, which we should test. If I would make a portal I would make it so that I can control it. This one probably has a lock on it, probably on the other side that prevents anything from here to go _there_, but allows for something from there to come here. Maybe not even that, which I think would be absolutely great, especially since we don't know where _there _is. I think it is dangerous, but as long as nothing goes or comes through it, it should be fine. I think I should come back later and try to see if I can find out anything. It is just that I need help with it. I have to go back to the headquarters and write a few letters" Sekiya-san said suddenly perfectly serious.

They went to find Souji and Sekiya-san bought fried squid which he gave to the white dog. They started off towards Mibu village as the day was turning towards evening.

Even though for him and a few of the units it had been a free day from their duties, it was not the same for all members of the group. Some unfortunate ones were passing in haste to be in time for their rounds or lazying towards the sleeping quarters after a long day. It seemed a few members including Maeda-kun of the third unit had set up a card game at the porch. Kazumi had a faint recollection of that not being exactly allowed, but as long as no one else cared he might as well have joined them.

"I promised to do something for the Vice-Commander, so I won't come tonight. Try not to lose" Saito-san said to Okita-san and left.

"Does he mean the shogi game?" Kazumi asked "Did he bet against the Vice-Commander?"

"I don't think Hajime-kun does that. He was just being nice" Okita-san said cheerfully.

"If you say so" Kazumi answered a bit unsure. He was not sure if Okita-san was just delusional or if Saito-san put a lot of effort into misleading people to think he was scary.

"Oh, I am very sure, after all Hajime-kun is very adorable" Okita-san said perfectly serious. Kazumi decided that he was going to go with delusional for now, even though he had his doubts. Something must have happened in the past two weeks that had made Saito-san less scary but Kazumi was sure it was not him becoming more delusional.

"I usually agree with people who say that you can get used to things, but I have to admit that I found Saito-san rather scary when I joined and I am not sure if you get used to such things" Kazumi said remembering back and testing his delusion-theory.

"Really? Well, I guess a lot of people have that misconception about Hajime-kun. Also people don't really understand him, like when he says: 'It is ill-advised' he means to say: 'Don't do it, stupid'. But, now that you said that, it is true that he did not seem to like you much at first, he didn't seem too happy to be having you in his unit. I think you convinced him otherwise though?" Okita-san pondered aloud.

"I wonder how that happened" Kazumi muttered to himself, he had no idea what so ever and he was ready to accept his ignorance on the matter as was the case with many other mysteries of life he had no understanding of.

"Well, maybe you managed to convince him you are not that useless? Or maybe you did something in the first place that annoyed him? Did you steal food from him? Not many things do though; I find it as personal challenge to find a thing that will annoy Hajime-kun. Though it seems to be hard, I think he already heard some of the worst things so he is pretty good at not letting them get to him" Okita-san said a bit more serious. Kazumi hoped he would elaborate on the matter, but instead the Shinsengumi captain smirked "Might be he got used to disliking you? Anyways in the future, whatever you do, try not get caught for lying or running away from your duties or doing him favors. I think he might really hate them. Or actually I think it might just be that he doesn't like being indebted to people, he hasn't really grasped the real idea and meaning of favors yet" Okita-san was saying with an almost serious tone.

"The real meaning?" Kazumi asked curious now; he was ready to accept no lying and no running, but no personal favors was a surprise.

"Yup, he takes it all a bit too seriously. He is getting better though, you should have met him back in Edo" Okita-san said cryptically.

"And that makes it so that he feels bad about being indebted to people?"

"Uh-huh. Like there was this one time back when we were all still in Edo and staying at the Shieikan and Hajime-kun came to stop by. Kondo-san knows the person whose dojo Hajime-kun was in and apparently that person had asked Hajime-kun to visit Shieikan while in Edo. In any case we had a really fun time. But he decided he was indebted to Kondo-san and Hijikata-san. It is along story, you know for taking him in and all the teaching and food and all the other stuff. So, I don't know how he did it, he refuses to tell me, but somehow he gathered up enough money and went and bought Kondo-san the katana he has now. Well that was after we came to Kyo though, Hajime-kun was already here at that point" Okita-san said and smiled "I told him he is being silly, but I guess that was to be expected though, considering the circumstances and how he is. It is a bit embarrassing, but he is probably the only one of us who actually does not owe Kondo-san anymore any money either" Okita-san said sounding just a bit guilty and more delighted about something "Well I have to go and get ready for the game. Next time I will gossip everything about Hijikata-san and his haiku collection. Wish me luck" he said lightly and turned towards the main house.

"Good luck and thanks for the advice" Kazumi said after him, trying to guess if he had heard right when Okita-san had said haiku collection.

"Sure, I like it best when everybody's all chummy. And of course, now you owe me one right? See ya" Okita-san said with a slightly evil grin and waved carelessly. Kazumi could not help but doubt that chumminess would probably be a bit too much to ask and had to admit that he had totally fallen for the trap. Owing one for Okita-san sounded somehow daunting. Left all alone and nothing he had to do Kazumi concluded it was a brilliant moment to get some work done. If he didn't hurry about it, there would definitely be someone who had a task for him to do.

"_No wonder then he hates you" _Setsuna said as they were walking towards the quarters of the lower ranking members.

"_What do you mean?"_

"_Isn't it rather obvious?" _She said a bit surprised at Kazumi's question.

"_I am afraid it is not. I am sorry my intellect is not at as high a ground as yours, not being all supernatural and really very old"_ Kazumi said back _"So I beseech you, enlighten me"_

"_That is so unnecessary. I am not old" _Setsuna said emphasizing the last words _"Anyways, I just thought that if someone would find it displeasing to be indebted to other people, would not such a person be very troubled if they didn't want to owe anything, but still do? Especially if they owe much, like you know because of not losing something really important?" _Setsuna said trying to sound very obvious, presenting her thoughts very slowly.

"Oh crap" Kazumi said aloud when it dawned on him and felt suddenly horribly heavy and anxious and very guilty for no obvious reason.

"_Do you really think Saito-san thinks now he owes me for that time in the forest with the ayakashi and all?" _He asked from Setsuna hoping she would not say what she was obviously going to say.

"_Well, I was just thinking that we should consider it a possibility. Unless you come up with a better more likely explanation. Which I doubt. It has to be something. I mean he does not seem like a human who does things on a mere whim. He might be thinking you saved his life, which of course _I am_ well aware was a mere accident on your part" _Setsuna was saying and looked up at Kazumi grinning.

"But apparently he disliked me from the start"

"_You can only blame yourself; you are bad at pretending to be a normal human and you are not the most likeable person ever; calling others old…"_

"I am very sorry Setsuna. Please forgive me, but this is not the point. So I was just thinking maybe he got bored with really disliking me and now he just thinks nothing of it?" Kazumi asked hopefully.

"_Right and while he was at it, he figured that it is his responsibility to help us out because….?"_

"_Maybe because of the red string, he thinks that now that he can see the youkai, it is kind of his responsibility to help out with getting rid of them and protecting people?"_ Kazumi suggested; Saito-san seemed to be someone who took their responsibilities very seriously _"Oh, which reminds me, don't tell him about the string. Not about the binding spell and not about the Ki"_.

"_Oh please, I won't tell him. If someone gets to murder you, I has to be me. But, seriously the youkai is your responsibility. And he is not actually helping to get rid of them; he is not helping us to cut them down. He is helping you to do your responsibilities, regardless what they are" _Setsuna pointed out very reasonably and uncharacteristically seriously.

"But it is not like I really saved his life" Kazumi said truthfully, but a bit defeated.

"_Well that is open to debate. But in the end, if you had done nothing what so ever, he would now be dead. Though, not sure how he knows that? Did I tell him? Anyways, if the moving corpses would not have gotten him, then the ayakashi definitely would. You know that. Even though the fact that he was in danger in the first place is all your fault, so probably he should not take it too seriously" _Setsuna said analytically _"But then again, it makes it your responsibility to get him out of it and you still end up saving his life, since you did not really force him to come there. Saving a specific human being should not really be that big of a deal, it is your job after all. Actually, you would be an even greater failure as an onmyouji if you had let him die" _Setsuna concluded being very unhelpful and Kazumi felt rather depressed. There was no way around it then.

"So did he forget about it or is he considering his debt paid now?" Kazumi asked wondering what brought about the change in his treatment.

"_Nah, I think he just figured he was being too proud and that is not good. He was probably curious what kind of person you are and really annoyed at you. I can't blame him. I would also be really embarrassed if I was saved by you. I mean you are kind of lame; being bad at fencing, useless and just fainting suddenly in the middle of the road. It would be really frustrating. Well there is the positive side of you being like that. Since you are so hopeless he might get to pay back his debt really soon considering you get in trouble a lot with humans" _Setsuna pointed out brightly.

"_Whose side are you on, anyways?"_

"_Ours of course. I take pride in telling you the truth and not letting you to think too highly of yourself. But I like Kaoru so there is no reason not to help him out. Maybe if I am nice to him, he will let me eat him" _Setsuna said dreamily and sat down in front of the house _"Besides it is not like I don't owe you also. I will wait here" _she said and turned back into her own form.

Hurriedly Kazumi scrapped together some paper and his writing utensils. He did not know too many who could help him with the portal, but wrote the same message into all three letters, describing the events of this afternoon and what they had seen on the Third street. He only added a short note to the last of the three letters and sealed them. He called out three small winds that very diligently came over to the real world and took the likeness of small falcons. He gave his letters to the spirits and asked them to safely deliver them.

"Have a nice trip" He wished to them as they took flight and disappeared into the darkening night.

"Kazumi, what's this about a portal in the middle of the city?" Yasu asked him the moment he stepped outside.

"Well, come with us and you can see for yourself. I have no idea" Kazumi admitted.

It was already late and it was not exactly allowed in the rules to leave the headquarters after curfew. Kazumi waited for about an hour that everybody slowly drifted to the main house and then he slipped away from the sleeping quarters and out of the side gates and started to walk back towards the city center. Everybody was so curious of the shogi-game played, if not every day, but weekly by Hijikata-san and Okita-san at the main house that it always managed to make the headquarters seem completely deserted. It would probably be noticed that Kazumi was not there, but he decided to leave figuring out a good explanation for later. There were very few people out that late and Kazumi could not blame them, the city was not exactly safe during the nights. He, Setsuna and Yasu reached the Third Street and decided to wait for a while on a side alley where they could see the street and the portal. There were still people leaving from the teahouses that lined the street and Kazumi had calculated that that the fifth unit should be making their patrol through the street soon. The hole in the ground was the same as before and it didn't give any further clues of its existence. Kazumi was not sure if he could figure out anything without help, but it did not hurt to try. While trying to come up with a reliable experiment for the portal, he felt a very inhuman presence from the other side of the street. There were some house sprites around the teahouse but on its awning there was a much stronger presence. A lone and very out of place peacock was sitting on the awning looking at them.

"Kazumi, the teahouse" Yasu growled.

"Yeah, I see it" Kazumi answered and scratched the caramel colored ears.

"Should I go and talk to it?" Setsuna asked and got to her feet.

"I think it is a shikigami. Go ask what he wants. Be careful" Kazumi said and watched lightly anxiously as Setsuna made her way to the other side of the street.

The two youkai exchanged some compliments and finally the peacock came down to the ground. It had come to deliver a letter that it gave to Setsuna and then, unlike any other of its kind it took flight. Setsuna turned around and jogged back, the letter between her teeth.

"Just a messenger. I think he belongs to the mysterious onmyouji-san we saw. He smelled the same as her" Sestuna said as Kazumi took the letter.

"What does it say?" Yasu asked as Kazumi was reading through it.

"This one" Kazumi said and held out the much longer of the two slips of paper "is a letter to me, asking if I know anything worth telling about the portal and inviting me to have a talk with the sender tonight. And this one is supposed to guarantee me entry to see her, as she says it would otherwise be and I quote 'very difficult for you to accomplish on your own' and 'please ask for Kiku'. Does this mean we have made new friends?" Kazumi asked not really from anyone thinking back at the odd lack of onmyouji in Kyoto and wondering if this person knew anything about it.

"A bit suspicious ones. Is that supposed to be her name? That does not really help us find her" Setsuna asked.

"That is the only name given, it is not really signed but there is an address. But before that comes work. Let's go see if we can found out what that thing is" Kazumi said folding the letter into his sleeve.

"She wants to meet you tonight?" Yasu asked peeking around to look at the street "Don't humans sleep during the night?"

"Where does she live? Is it far away? Her shikigami would not tell anything" Setsuna said a bit annoyed.

"No, it is very close. It is somewhere inside of the gates of Shimabara, so I guess there is no worry about keeping her up too late" Kazumi answered and lit the lantern he had brought.

To figure out what he was dealing with Kazumi wanted to make a few tests and see exactly how the whole portal thing worked. He actually did not have any evidence to support his theory that the hole indeed was a portal, but he had heard enough talk about them to have it as a very strong hypothesis. Now he just needed to do some research. The street was nearly empty and if anyone found him crouching in the middle of the street and staring at the dirt suspicious and odd no one came to complain to Kazumi. Well, almost no one.

"Is that the only way to find out what it is? It is a bit suspicious what you are doing right now"

"What?" Kazumi said startled and shaken out of his thoughts after hearing the unexpected voice and turned to look at his side where all the Ki came from "Have you been there for long? Why didn't you say something" he demanded. Probably being so rude to your superiors was not really what he was expected to do, but Kazumi had proven to be bad at doing what was expected of him.

"I did. I said 'Good Evening'" Saito-san said not really as if he was trying to make a point.

"But-"

"He actually did" Yasu mumbled where he and Setsua were kind of lying in a comfy pile. Setsuna said nothing, just looked at Kazumi with a look that clearly said: Could you at least try to pretend that you are not so hopeless?

"What constitutes a long time in this context?" Saito-san asked horribly uninterested.

"Never mind. It is just, well I didn't expect to see you here, so I think you scared me. I mean you did scare me. What are you doing here?" Kazumi asked while he was laying carefully the slips of paper onto the perfectly smooth surface of the portal.

"I just came to see if you are getting anywhere" Saito-san said and didn't manage to sound interested "You weren't at the game. Maeda told me that you went to sleep early, so I thought you came here"

"Weren't you supposed to be doing some errand for the Vice-Commander? You told Okita-san that you won't go to the game"

"Yes" Saito-san said looking a bit doubtfully at the papers "But I finished already so I went to ask permission to come here"

"I see" Kazumi said amazed at how responsible it was that some people asked for permission to leave the headquarters and just for this. It reminded him of the conversation he had earlier had with Setsuna. "Did you come to help me?" he asked interested.

Had he known that the question would have such an effect he definitely would have thought a bit more carefully about asking it, just for the sake of consideration towards people who came to help you. It seemed to Kazumi that had Saito-san been a person who knew how to blush he would have done exactly that, but instead he just looked a bit confused, got quickly up and turned to look the other direction.

"Helping you is not my job" he just said sounding a bit annoyed.

"Yeah, I guess that is true. Well, it is nice to have company though" Kazumi said regretting for asking. It would be horribly discouraging if he had managed to anger Saito-san again. He had rather enjoyed not being disliked.

For a moment they were all very quiet and the calm was only broken a few times by some late customers and people hurrying home. Very disappointingly Kazumi's experiment was not very helpful, it only proved what he almost for sure knew anyways; nothing from this world could go through the portal and it seemed nothing came through it either. Or if something did manage that, it was not constructed out of the Five Elements. He got up and collected his things and took the slips of paper. He looked over to where Setsuna was dozing and Yasu eating something which looked like the rest of fried squid sticks, both happily ignoring everything else. Saito-san was still standing closest to him.

"Uhm, I am going to go and meet with an onmyouji. She invited me to talk about the gate" Kazumi said and didn't get much of a response "It seems that she lives in Shimabara. Do you want to come? Or at least give me the permission to go?"


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: It took me forever to write this but I hope it is at least a little worth the wait. It seems that this is a very slowly progressing story. Sorry about that. Thank you all for reading and especially for waiting!

**To Yester**, many thanks!

Chapter 8. The Chrysanthemum

Staring at the blank paper did not seem to help; no words came no matter how long Souji stared at it. The paper was and stubbornly so stayed empty and wordless. Ever since they had finished the shogi game he had been sitting in his room staring at the paper. Well, the very first thing he done after the game was sneaking into Hajime-kun's room and borrowing the paper in question and some ink and a brush. He had then returned to his room and got to work, but it seemed he didn't make as much progress he had hoped. Tonight didn't really seem to favor him in his endeavors. First he had lost to Hijikata-san in the shogi-game, but then again Hijikata-san had been on a very characteristically sharp mood, something the others called his Oni-look and now he was failing in composing a letter to Matsu-neechan. He had gotten her a gift to congratulate her for the baby, but now he needed to write a letter to go with it. After some time staring at the paper he had gone to find some help. He had started with Shinpachi and Sanosuke whom he had found by accident drinking behind the house and asked them for advice. Unfortunately the answers he got had turned out to be two questions: 'Does your nee-chan look like you at all?' and 'How old is your Onee-san?' both which Souji did not appreciate too much hearing and the conversation had ended up with Souji promising them that if they ever said anything about his neechan ever gain he would kill them. Leaving the two he had bumped into Heisuke who apparently was going to go to join them in the false hope of getting a drink too. The 'Keep up with the good work' that he was suggested by Heisuke did not seem to Souji as the thing he was looking for to put into this letter. Sannan-san had been to see the game and Souji thought about asking him. Sannan-san knew a lot of things and was good with wordy things especially, but he would be very upset if disturbed and Souji was sure whatever Sannan-san would suggest would just sound way too grand for his purposes. Matsu-neechan would never believe Souji wrote the letter in that case. Running out of options he even considered Hijikata-san who was very good at speaking, but if Souji went to ask him, he would just be caught by Hijikata-san with his bad calligraphy again. Getting nagged about it now was really not going to be helpful. Finally Souji decided to go and ask Kondo-san; he had met Matsu-neechan many times and would definitely know what to say. Souji arrived at Kondo-san's room only to notice that he was in the middle of his evening mediation. It would probably be alright to disturb him, but Souji decided against it. Knowing how busy and hardworking Kondo-san was Souji could not bring himself to bother him with such a trivial thing. It was better to let Kondo-san get the precious calm and rest. A tiny bit discouraged but not enough to make him give up Souji returned to his room. He returned to stare at the blank paper he had borrowed from Hajime-kun that was waiting for him, so heavy in its whiteness. He then remembered that Hajime-kun's room had indeed been empty earlier but he must have come back by now. Greatly encouraged by the idea Souji went back to Hajime-kun's room and rapped at the door. Hajime-kun had this very unexpected and brilliant ability of knowing how to explain things away and otherwise just bullshitting people into believing the most outrageous things without outright lying to them. He must then also know how to explain things into being, Souji thought. But there was no answer.

"Hajime-kun? You can't be sleeping yet" Souji said and waited for a while "I'll come in" he said and pushed the door open, but the room was exactly as Souji had left it; empty and a bit messy since Hajime-kun had hidden his paper and ink and thus forced Souji to look for it.

Wondering where Hajime-kun had disappeared to Souji went back to his room. Maybe it was not too bad; Hajime-kun was not exactly horribly good at saying nice sounding things to people. Defeated Souji returned to the paper that was failing him. Instead he looked at the hairpin he had found today; it was decorated with tiny metal flowers and it had been painted in shades of green. Souji had picked it to match Matsu-neechan's eyes. Probably she wouldn't mind too much even if Souji did not write her a horribly long letter.

It was as if he really thought that Hajime was going to believe him. Amongst all of the excuses he had heard by now and was bound to listen to in the future it had to be one of the worst. Out of all the onmyouji there were Sekiya-san had somehow managed to find the only who just happened to live in Shimabara?

"Look, read this" Sekiya-san said and rummaged through a stack of papers "It is her invitation" he said and held out a tiny bit of paper rolled and crumbled and smelling a lot like a woman's incense. Now he wanted to make Hajime read his love letters? The whole situation was already embarrassing enough without that and he would definitely not care no matter how pretty words they had.

"I am not in the least interested in your private correspondence" Hajime said and did not take the letter "Why to ask permission? If you are going to go no matter what I say, it hardly makes a difference".

"It is not a love letter. I mean, fine it does look like one a little, now that you mention it, but not the point. I just want to be reliable also. I want to have permission" Sekiya-san was saying and opened the letter "Just read it. Please."

A bit reluctantly Hajime took the letter and read it.

"She knows about the gate? How do you know her? She writes as if you never really met" Hajime said and gave the letter back.

"I think I met her once while doing the rounds with Okita-san. She has been helping me out, or maybe it's the other way around. It seems she can tell me about the gate. Maybe she knows something useful. And she says she has something very important to tell me, concerning the emptiness. I figured she means the fact that there seems to be no other people like us in Kyoto" Sekiya-san babbled along happily "So, what do you say Saito-san? Will you help me, please?" Sekiaya-san asked eagerly.

Hajime was pretty sure that wandering off to Shimabara was exactly what Hijikata-san did not want them to be doing. But then again they were not really going to go there to do any of the prohibited things and if they were not caught no one would have any reason to be lecturing them about it later either. Not to mention it might not be so bad to know the people Sekiya-san had connections with, maybe they also knew what he was doing in Kyoto. Listening on their conversation might tell him something more interesting about Sekiya-san and the onmyouji; he himself was very careful not to tell anything detailed or recent things about himself.

"I suppose there is no harm in talking to this person"

"Thank you" Sekiya-san said smiling and turned towards his shikigami "Setsuna, Yasu. Wake up, we are going. Come!" he called and grumpily but obediently the huge wolves rose to their feet and walked over.

"I promise it won't take too long and we will be back at the headquarters before it is too late" Sekiya-san was saying while they started walking towards the red-light district "I will make it up to you" he promised.

Compared to the rest of the city the Shimabara district was bustling with people; men leisurely walking the streets with their local companions, some groups of friends or business acquaintances looking for a dinner and entertainment, to be customers examining the caged women in their flowery kimonos and a flow of people going and coming from the numerous establishments lining the streets. Even though it was late evening, the streets were flooded with the golden warm light escaping from the windows above and the many lanterns hanging from the eaves. From the upper windows the more expensive prostitutes leaned over to look down at the street and to exchange saucy almost naughty comments with the passersby, before flawlessly portraying some mock-coyness and disappearing from sight. Never having been to Shimabara before Kazumi found it to be comfortably similar to Yoshiwara at home, but then again that probably was not surprising when you thought about it. The purpose, the layout and buildings and the rules and regulations were all the same. Still, he was lost. He looked at the letter, but none of the establishments shared the name of the teahouse mentioned there and he knew nothing more than that the teahouse they were looking for was somewhere on the fifth street and to the left after the gate.

"It seems I am lost. I'll go to ask for directions" Kazumi said to Saito-san who had followed him the entire way without a single word uttered at his own initiative and was turning away.

"It is that three story building with the front gate" Saito-san said looking towards the end of the street.

"I didn't realize you knew it. You have been there before?"

"Once"

"It looks expensive. I wonder if this will work out" Kazumi thought aloud as they were walking towards the house that was a story taller than most of its companions. It also had a wall around the entrance and no barred windows to display the cheapest prostitutes. At the front gate stood a guard armed with a bokken.

"Hmph. I thought ronin were not allowed around here. Get lost, you can't afford it here" the guy said before they even properly reached the gate.

Fleetingly Kazumi wondered if pointing out that they were not ronin anymore and that the gatekeepers to Shimabara were useless at their work anyways would help. He was pretty sure, not only ronin but a lot of women passed into Shimabara every night thanks to either small gifts that exchanged hands or just the people neglecting their duties.

"I am here to meet someone" Kazumi said and opened the paper he had before giving it to the guard in case he didn't feel like looking at it and would not see the seal "This was given to me by Okiku-san" Kazumi continued offering the paper to the guard to see.

"Do you think I will fall for a trick like that?"

"No. It is the truth, not a trick" Kazumi said perfectly unfazed.

The guard took a look at the paper and stared. It didn't take long for him to call for someone from the house and some servants to come to the gate to take them in. After the servants in charge of customers' shoes and clothing very politely but also very stubbornly had collected their swords they were taken to a room at downstairs where the owner, a very short fat man and his very dry looking wife welcomed them and asked them to wait with few other customers. Kazumi sat down on the pillow offered for him and wondered about the offered tea. Saito-san didn't sit, but looked around at the screens painted with very colorful and erotic motives.

"You feel a sudden interest in the arts Saito-san?" Kazumi tried. Saito-san merely shook his head a bit and turned to come and sit next to Kazumi.

"I was wondering what purpose they serve" He said not interested and apparently decided it was a sufficient explanation.

"Maybe they are supposed to spark your imagination while waiting?" Kazumi suggested. He had never thought of it and would never have had he not been invited to do so now.

"People tend to want things they cannot have. I am sure leaving it to your imagination would be much more effective or interesting than offering pre-prepared ideas. It is unnecessary here where all that is pictured there is at your leisure"

"I see, so do you mean to say you find it boring to have paintings about sex in a brothel?" Kazumi asked curious.

"Not really. Maybe it goes with the general theme" Saito-san concluded.

As it seemed to end the conversation Kazumi drifted back to wondering about the rather surprising things Saito-san paid attention to and wasted even a moment to trying to figure out what that said about him. Maybe his unsocial nature resulted from the fact that he spent so much time stalking other people and thinking too much. While still getting nowhere with his thought Kazumi was interrupted by a woman approaching them.

"Dear customers, good evening and welcome" the woman said bowing.

She was an elderly tiny woman with very sharp features and a very determined voice "I believe you have requested Okiku-san? If you are both going to enjoy her company, you understand that we have to ask double the price" she said very politely.

"Ah, no. It is not like that" Kazumi said and received a questioning look from the woman.

"I am here to watch only" Saito-san offered helpfully.

The woman now turned her quizzical, though oddly, not too surprised look towards the Shinsengumi captain and left Kazumi to wonder why Saito-san had picked this exact moment to develop an unforeseen sense of humor. Not that he minded though.

"Yes, that is how it is. I am here to meet Okiku-san and to _discuss_ with her some personal matters, not related to her ah, work here and this person is only here to accompany me. We, uh, won't be expecting any of her services" Kazumi said trying to sound convincing.

"I see. I must confirm this with Okiku-san. May I have your name?" The woman said.

"Yes, of course. Please tell Okiku-san that Sekiya Kazumi is here to see her" Kazumi said and the woman left and disappeared into the stair case.

"They think we are trying to trick them" Saito-san said nonchalantly "I am surprised that anyone would even bother".

"I guess not too many people come here to talk, no matter what, maybe they think it is suspicious in itself?" Kazumi wondered aloud.

They didn't have to wait too long for the woman's return and soon they were being led up the stairs. A group of people were standing in front of the door next to the landing which they passed on their way up. One of the brightly dressed women gave a giggly laughter that made Kazumi to look at the person.

"Oh, that's interesting. That girl is a boy. I didn't know there were kagema in here" Kazumi said to Saito-san, not really expecting an answer when they continued to climb the steps "I thought there was some law about that. That male and female prostitutes are to be separated. I guess this is to be expected from Kyo" he continued.

"There is a law, but there are rumors that the most famous teahouses have both. I guess you have proved them to be true" Saito-san said a bit bored.

"I guess the ones that are supposed to enforce the law are easily bribed off " Kazumi said wondering about how much money the place made in a year and how much they paid in bribes to officials.

The arrived at the top floor which offered a view over Shimabara and you could almost see the city beyond the walls. It was perfectly quiet there unlike downstairs and the space was divided into bigger apartments. They followed the woman to the left and came at a door. The woman knelt to knock the door.

"Okiku-san, your guests have arrived"

"Thank you Usami-san, please show them in"

The older woman pushed the door open. Kazumi stepped in with Saito-san and the door was closed behind them. The room was huge, with beautifully painted screens, perfectly kept tatami and numerous lamps to give light. The table in the middle of the room was set for three people and the air smelled of fragrance. The mistress of the room bowed her head in greeting.

"Welcome" she said with a light voice.

Unlike her colleagues that they had seen in the lower floors she was not wearing the flowery heavy kimonos or the full regalia of the tayuu that she was. Quite contrary she had a very plain, though extremely fine silk kimono and her hair tied into bun at her neck.

"Please come in and sit down" she said and motioned gracefully towards the room.

She was rather tall for a woman, but very willowy and moved in a graceful manner. Her face was pretty which probably helped to explain her high ranking amongst the flowers of Shimabara. In the much better light, Kazumi realized she was older than he had thought; she was closer to thirty than twenty for sure.

"Ah, but I know you!" She said suddenly looking at Saito-san who for once almost looked a bit surprised "You are also with the Shinsengumi. You were here that night, when Miho-chan's customer died" she said.

"You have met before also?" Kazumi asked Saito-san who shook his head.

"No. She might have seen me. I was here with Souji accompanying Nakagura and Hijikata-san when they came to arrest Niimi-sensei. He was convinced to commit seppuku by Hijiktata-san" Saito-san said.

"But I am a bit disappointed" Okiku-san said looking now at Kazumi "I have heard a lot about you. People seem to think you are somehow special. I was expecting you to be taller or something" she said tapping her cheek with her finger.

"People tend to exaggerate things. I am horribly not special at all" Kazumi said feeling oddly self-conscious.

"It is true what you say about people. I will find out for myself. I look forward to working with you more" she said happily "Now let me introduce myself properly. Unfortunately I do not recall my family name, but my real given name is Ayane. Here though I am known as Kiku" she said lightly even though the words sounded somehow horribly sad to Kazumi.

"Well, you already know my name and this is Saito Hajime-san" Kazumi said and Saito-san bowed a bit for means of being polite.

"Nice to meet you" Kiku-san said and smiled "Now tell me, what do you say about having dinner? I have not had company over for dinner in a really long time and it gets lonely. I am very happy you brought your friend Sekiya-san. We can talk about all those dreadful things after we have had some food and sake" she was saying.

Rather sure Saito-san was not pleased being called his friend Kazumi felt like wondering how Kiku-san was expecting them to have money to eat in such a place and why was it that she usually ate her dinners alone.

"We already ate dinner. It is fine if you-"

"Nonsense. I am sure you work very hard every day and truth to be told you boys do look a bit skinny. So let me help out. Now what do you say about fish? They make wonderful fish here" she said and without waiting for an answer she turned around "Suzu-chan, come here"

A girl around the age of ten appeared from the adjoined room and knelt on the floor.

"Yes, Onee-sama?" she said.

"Run down to the kitchen and have them make that fish for us for dinner. And bring sake. And you may eat also while you wait, I won't be needing you" she said to the girl who left the room in haste.

The dinner Kiku-san had so lightheartedly ordered arrived and she had them sit down and poured sake.

"Now, tell me Sekiya-san, what might you be doing in Kyoto? Last time I heard you were to be the heir to the Mori clan" Kiku-san said.

"I think they are not all that decided on that yet" Kazumi said trying dodge the question.

He was absolutely sure that even though he seemed like he could not care less Saito-san very carefully listened to every word he uttered while apparently very contently drinking his sake. Kazumi also could not help but wonder how Kiku-san knew about the whole Mori clan dispute.

"Then you came here to hide or were you sent here? Are they trying to kill you?" she asked curious.

"No, I hope not. I was sent here for work. I am looking for someone" Kazumi said almost amused at how other people seemed to think his life was interesting "I don't think they care enough to try to kill me and I told them I don't care either anymore".

"Hmmm. I see" Kiku-san said and chewed some rice "Maybe I can help?"

"With the Mori clan? I think if I just ignore them they will leave me in peace"

"No, but this search of yours. Is it a youkai or an onmyouji?" she asked.

"Actually neither" Kazumi said and wondered if he should be having the conversation in the first place. It was rather dangerous.

"Oh, that's interesting. Well, I am not sure how much I can do for you from behind these walls, I can only leave during night and my free time, but tell me if you need help. I am better acquainted with the youkai and onmyouji of this city than the normal humans, but I know some who might be able to help with that" she said cheerfully.

"Thank you. I will tell you if I need help" Kazumi promised. He probably needed it already.

He ate the last remaining piece of his food and wondered exactly how much Kiku-san knew about him and if she was really all that helpless when it came to her ability to leave her fragranced cage.

"Now to other matters" Kiku-san said pushing her tray to the side "Let me tell you about that odd dimensional hole on Third Street and give you a proper warning".

With a guilty tinge Hijikata pushed the letter away and wondered how long he could go on not telling Kondo-san. It seemed that Koudou-san had finally made a breakthrough in his research and was coming close to finalizing his version of the ochimizu, but the side-effects were still there. No, he should have already have told Kondo-san, that was the truth. But that the bakufu was using them as some kind of test subjects really irked him. It could not be helped though, not much longer, they were orders and had to be obeyed. Having made the breakthrough in his research Koudou-san was asking a permission to start testing the medicine to those of the Shinsengumi soldiers that he was to treat and whose wounds were too severe and would lead to death. Koudou-san claimed that in the best cases it could save their lives or even better give them extra ordinary strength. The side effects could be ignored. He had convinced the bakufu that not only was his medicine perfectly harmless, after being perfected it could create a new kind of invincible army. But first it had to be tested. The mere idea made Hijikata to want to crumble the letter and burn it, since he could not go and do the same to Koudou-san. Sannan-san had pointed out that they were lucky to have Koudou-san, as he was a brilliant doctor and very knowledgeable in western medicine. The two of them had been having long talks about the ochimizu and Sannan-san seemed rather interested in the research. Hijikata sighed defeated and left his room. He had no other choice than to go and face Kondo-san and tell him about the side-effects of the drug. Maybe it would turn out well with time. He was sure that was what Kondo-san was going to say. That it was a good thing, a better medicine that they could use when it would be finished. It would make the Shinsengumi invincible. Hijikata felt like it was up to him to protect the Shinsengumi's interests, but how to do it now? Every time a soldier got severely injured they'd make a perfect test subject for Koudou-san's research. They would be helping the bakufu too, but would it help them in return? By losing their minds? Almost too soon he had arrived at Kondo-san's door.

"Kondo-san, can I have a word?" He said knocking on the door.

"Ah, Toshi. Yes, come in" Kondo-san said cheerfully. He was in the middle of reading the _Tales of the three kingdoms_ again "Congratulations for your win tonight. Souji put up a good fight today" he said smiling.

"Yes, he got better lately" Hijikata admitted.

"What's wrong Toshi? You seem troubled" Kondo-san said.

"It is about Koudou-sensei. It seems there are some troubles about the medicine that we were not aware of before. I think we should discuss how to deal with those" Hijikata said.

"Some troubles? What do you mean?" Kondo-san asked befuddled.

"It seems that as it is now it is a perfect cure, but it breaks the person's mind who takes it" Hijikata said.

"What do you mean breaks" Kondo-san asked now very serious "Is it dangerous?"

"I do not know the details, but it seems to take away all common sense and give an unexplainable lust for blood. It seems to be rather dangerous for both the patients and those around them" Hijikata answered "As of now, the Shinsengumi had been ordered by the bakufu to assist Koudou-sensei fully in his research. Of course it is all to be in secret and no outsider is to know anything about it, maybe we should not even tell all the group's members. Besides you and me only Sannan-san knows about this. We have to figure out how to deal with this in the future".

"I will call for Sannan-san. If you are this worried about the matter Toshi, I think we should discuss it as soon as possible" Kondo-san said very serious.

"Thank you. I think we should definitely look into it".


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: I have had this chapter half ready for the better part of three months, I just kept failing to finish it. I am very sorry for the delay. It picks up right from the middle of where the last one ended so it might not make too much sense. It seems that this is a very very slowly progressing story. Sorry about that again. Thank you all for reading and especially for waiting! _

Chapter 9. Late night conversations

It was rather unexpected. Kazumi had not really thought that Kiku-san was serious about the warning, but from the look on her pretty face it was obvious that she had taken it upon herself to help.

"A proper warning?" Kazumi asked "What do you mean?"

"I have heard that this did not happen in Edo, but it might still be too early to say that. Does it not strike you as very odd that there are no other people like us in the whole city?" Kiku-san asked "They all started to disappear a few years back and now there is just me and three other people. Anyone who was known to be an onmyouji has gone missing. Anyone with the ability, a trace of kenki or any knowledge of youkai and exterminating them has disappeared. Sometimes it is whole families and those family members who are not like us are left behind"

"You are suggesting that they were selectively kidnapped?" Saito-san said "how many people are you talking about?"

"Yes, exactly. I am not sure how many people there are in total, I know of some eleven people for sure. If you go to the officials and ask them to look for your wife or husband they just say after a few days that they probably ran off with someone. I doubt there are truly so many adulterous people in Kyo" Kiku-san said annoyed "I am only saying, don't tell anyone you have the ability. Stay away from the court officials as well as the bakufu. They will take you too" she said very seriously to Kazumi.

"Sure. I will be careful" he promised.

"Very well. Now, I promised to tell you about that odd thing that happens at the Third street" she said and lifted the bottle to pour some more sake for Kazumi.

"No thank you. If I get too drunk they will try to eat me. He can have my share also" Kazumi said nodding towards Saito-san and hiding his own cup.

"Are your shikigami that strong?" Kiku-san asked very interested.

"I think they try just for the sake of trying. Well, Setsuna and Yasu have given up, but Aoi probably never will. It is just a pain that all; she makes a huge mess every time"

"You don't seem to be drunk at all" Saito-san said though he didn't make any efforts to give the bottle back.

"Good. As long as they think that also, especially Aoi-sama and it should be alright" Kazumi said and was going to ask for the story about the portal.

"Who is that?" Kiku-san asked "It is not one the wolves?"

"No, Aoi-sama is a rain goddess who despises the mere thought of me or so she says every times she appears. She is constantly trying to eat me, but she is very strong also. She has proven to be extremely helpful" Kazumi said "Now, what about the portal?"

"Oh, right. Since you are not telling me anything worth knowing about it I take it that you didn't figure out what it is either. Then, let me tell you what I know of it. Don't worry about it. It does not work. It appears there every once in while. Some ten years back some local onmyouji tried to get rid of it, but they couldn't, instead they sealed it, even though it seemed that nothing went through it anyways. I just wanted to tell you not to waste your time with it. It will disappear again in a few weeks" Kiku-san said carefree.

Even though she sounded very sure about it, Kazumi didn't feel all that convinced. Maybe he was being too concerned, but he could not help worry about it. It was just too unnatural and he knew those things were dangerous. A bell rang somewhere downstairs and cut off his thoughts.

"Midnight" Kiku-san said helpfully.

"We should go back" Saito-san said calmly.

"Thank you very much for the dinner Okiku-san" Kazumi said when they were leaving.

"Ayane. I think we should be friends" She said and smiled "Let me walk you downstairs. Oh, and please do not tell anyone about meeting me. I am supposed to only be available for a selected few with a lot of money and charts proving noble lineage" she said winking.

They reached the last landing and said goodbye. Kazumi started to follow Saito-san towards the entrance.

"Sekiya-san! Could I as you one last question?" she called out.

Curious as to what it might be she wanted to ask privately Kazumi walked back to the landing.

"I was very impressed about that spell you made with the red string for your kenki" Ayane-san said nodding towards Saito-san who apparently was not all that curious about their conversation and went to sit in the screen room they had been led to when they had arrived "I have not seen something like that before. I have only heard of it from my master but even his description was very vague. Could you tell how it works really?" she asked very curious.

"It is a kind of a very simple variation of the normal life line spell, except that it gets a bit more complicated because it has to do with your mind also. But instead of balancing the Ki between the two people or anything else you might have, it enables you to choose things that you have to be shared between the two people. I didn't ask Saito-san to share anything with me so I think now it only works one direction. Or I hope it does" Kazumi said carefully.

"He gets to share your kenki and the ability?" Ayane-san asked awed.

"Yes, but just the kenki in reality, I don't think he knows how to use the ability even if he would figure out he could. I mean I wouldn't know how to use someone else's. Well, the downside is that it takes some of my Ki also" Kazumi said.

"Then why in the world did you do it?" Ayane-san asked surprised.

"Ah, a long story. I kind of had to give it to him. I will tell you next time we meet" Kazumi promised.

"Could you tell me how to do it also?"

"You know I can't do that"

"The spell belongs to your clan?" Ayane-san asked disappointed.

"No, to my family. Sorry"

"I see. But, what if I can offer you something for it?" Ayane-san said with a cute smile "Say I take you to meet the other girls and you pick the one you like the most and then you can come back here whenever you want, for free and she will be waiting here for you?" she suggested.

"Uhm, you see I don't really nee-"

"You already have a special girl? I see. I can have her moved here or maybe get some deal with a lower price or something at her current owner. I dare say I have some influence over such matters around here" Ayane said confidently.

"No, thank you, it is not like that at all"

"It is not?"

"No. I don't have a girl somewhere, I just don't like-"

"Ah, I see. I understand!"

"You do?"

"Yes, of course I do, silly. Of course you would say no when you already have him. You are so sweet" Ayane-san said confidently and understanding.

"Huh?" Was all Kazumi could manage as an answer. He had a very bad feeling about it suddenly and no idea what they were talking about.

"What do you mean 'Huh'? You might want to learn some manners. I am being serious here"

"What are you being serious about Ayane-san?" Kazumi asked dreading.

"Well, about you and Saito-kun sleeping together of course" Ayane-san said bit annoyed. Of course, Kazumi though and was hoping Aoi-sama would have managed with her agenda before all this happened.

"Oh, you are blushing, that is so cute. You know, you don't have to play dumb with me. I totally understand. I am afraid though, I might have been a bit insensitive. Sorry about that, but you know you could have said something sooner" the pretty tayuu said perfectly serious and also perfectly unaware of how delusional she was being.

Kazumi wondered if he should just give up and go to sleep because obviously it was not a good day for him or if sorting out the misunderstanding was better. Considering how scary it would be if found out later and not sorted out, Kazumi figured he had to give sensibility a try. Or he would if he could just recall how speech was formulated.

"Uhm… Look, Ayane-san I have to tell you something. You can't-"

"Oh, don't worry. I won't say anything of course. I take it is to be a secret?" she said tapping her nose and perfectly ignored him.

"No, it is not-"

"Really? Oh, then I misunderstood. That's a surprise though"

"Yes, exactly. See, for all this to be true would mean that I would be really desperate to d-" Kazumi tried, but was cut off before he managed to say _die_.

"Desperate? What do you mean Sekiya-san? You can't be talking about Saito-kun? You are being so mean. I don't think there is any reason to be saying that. Quite the contrary, don't you agree?" Ayane-san said rather upset and totally missing the danger and the point "If you ask me, you did extremely well. He is so cute! Well, a bit quiet, but I guess if that is your thing…So shy, poor thing, it is so adorable" Ayane-san was saying with a thoughtful and rather dreamy expression.

"Shy?" Kazumi repeated without thinking, very surprised but recoiled "No, that is not my or anyone's thing… Look, Saito-san is not at all cute, he is really scary which is why I am definitely not sleeping with him. And please don't talk so loud. He might hear and I don't want to die yet" Kazumi said weakly and very worried about the thickness of paper walls.

"Are you sure?" Ayane-san asked much more disappointed now than earlier.

"Yes, on both points"

"Oh, so that is how it is. Alright. I get it" She said "It is a bit disappointing, but since you two are not together, so maybe you would be interested in the b-"

"No, thank you. I am fine, really fine" Kazumi said quickly before she could start again about her pretty colleagues and started to walk away from her "I think I will go back now. It was nice to meet you. Good night"

"Good night" Ayane-san said smiling at his distress possibly a little knowingly.

Rather worried for no obvious reason Kazumi went to look for Saito-san whom he found waiting in the screen room. Luckily he was sitting in the window end of the room and far from the stair case, apparently trying to avoid the more populated side of the room. After the conversation he had just had, he was slightly inclined to doubt Ayane-san's trustworthiness when it came to reading people, but then again she had to be good at it to rise to the position she had now. It was difficult to please people if you did not understand them. Shy people would probably avoid having to talk to others, right? But to what extent could someone be shy? To lead other people to think they were perfectly unsocial? Kazumi started to feel rather guilty. His realization did not make Saito-san seem any less scary, but he felt bad for thinking he was indifferent to things and unsocial. Also rather surprisingly he realized that Okita-san had said earlier something that actually made perfect sense. As Kazumi was still thinking of it, oddly enough a middle aged man with boring but very expensive looking clothing was walking towards Saito-san.

"Dear customer, are you leaving?" The servant in charge of the entrance asked.

"Yes" Kazumi said a bit surprised with his attention drawn from the room "And him also" Kazumi said nodding towards Saito-san.

"Very well" the servant said and gave the orders to his underlings to fetch the matching belongings.

Really curious Kazumi watched as the man reached Saito-san and said something to him. Kazumi was too far to hear what it was, but suddenly he really hoped he had because it had managed to really annoy Saito-san. Not that he looked like it at all, but the great thing about the kenki was that it let its possessor see the auras people carried around. It didn't help much with total strangers, but with a lot of time and effort you could learn to interpret individual ones to the point where you could pretty much tell how they felt and sometimes to guess what they thought. Kazumi really did not know Saito-san well enough at all to say anything about his aura, except the one thing he had been sure to learn early; which was when he didn't like something. With this sudden realization Kazumi suddenly felt like he needed to go and save the poor fellow before something sharp happened to him. By the time Kazumi got to the windows the boring looking man was bowing and apologizing desperately.

"Saito-san?" Kazumi asked and they both turned to look at him, the one addressed looking rather uninterested and the apologizing one with a horrified expression "I am sorry I made you wait. We can go now" Kazumi continued more than just a little curious. He wondered how shy people thought of personal questions.

It was very late at night, just few hours before sunrise and Souji was returning back from his patrol. It was the last night patrol that Souji was assigned to do before it would be the third and fourth unit's turn. It was surprisingly quiet this week and Souji felt a bit lazy after so little work. He was a bit bored too; they had been kept back for over an hour just waiting for some merchants to stop bickering. He had been wondering if there was something he could do about his boredom and if so, what that should be. He had been in the city with Hajime-kun and Sekiya-san and he had come up with a very nice refreshing activity of going to the bath houses, but for his dismay it had not been realized. He was returning back to the headquarters with the second unit, tailing after everybody else. He wondered if Hijikata-san would be willing to let them at least have a tug of war competition. Having promised that he would turn in the reports for their patrol, which he had not written, Souji wondered off towards the house that was thought of as the center of the compound, mostly because Hijikata-san and Kondo-san had their rooms there as well as the scribes with their papery archives. As he was making his way through the house he heard the exited voice of Sannan-san from Kondo-san's room.

"But think Hijikata-kun, think of all the possibilities it could offer! It would change the very idea of a soldier. It would give us a great advantage! You fail to see the greater picture! In mere weeks we could be discovering something amazing"

"No matter. I am against it. We do not know enough of the possibilities and I am afraid you are too much blinded by mere hope" Hijikata-san said curtly. The voices were raised and carefully Souji tried to inch closer.

"It is a drawback of not being curious about new things that one never discovers ones true potential. To have hope is to go forward"

"I have said so before, not all new things are good. In your enthusiasm of the western science, you forget the dangers it has. To blindly trust in only hope and not in real things would be foolish, lives could be lost for no reason and what of those already been sacrificed?" Hijikata-san growled. Souji recognized the tone, it was the one Hijikata-san had always used on him when he had been naughty as a child and pretty much always after that.

"Ah, now now, Toshi, Sannan-san. You are both quite right. We have been over this many times already tonight and I can see it is definitely a matter that we can't easily solve. It is getting late and I think it is better to get some rest. Maybe we should continue this conversation again tomorrow?" Kondou-san said trying to establish peace.

"Very well. I am sorry to have been out of line. Good night, Kondo-san, Hijikta-kun" Sannan-san said and forced Souji to duck and retreat behind the corner of the corridor. He listened as Sannan-san left the room and walked down to the other direction. A heavy silence had fallen inside the room. Very carefully Souji sneaked back.

"Toshi, I am afraid we have no choice. It is orders. And Sannan-san is merely trying to see the good things in all this" Kondo-san said gravely.

"Or an interesting experiment. How can there be something good in such a matter? You are taking it too calmly. Sannan-san is too trusting" Hijikata-san growled back.

"Ah, Toshi, try to go easy on him. He gets carried away with his enthusiasm with the books and new things. Please try to help Sannan-san so that we can make the right decision about this. It can be vital for the group" Kondo-san pleaded.

"I understand. I will listen to him more carefully tomorrow. You are also right, we might not have a choice. It is orders" Hijikata-san said and got to his feet "Good night Kondo-san" he said and Souji barely had time to get out of the way.

"Good night Toshi" Kondo-san said from inside the room.

Making sure that also Hijikata-san had passed Souji stepped out of hiding. What could it be that was so serious? Even though they had always been on rather difficult terms, Hijikata-san and Sannan-san had always had respect for each other. Now they seemed to be on the edge of loosing that and it wasn't just their usual brotherly rivalry either. It was some bad problem they couldn't solve that made all of them so agitated. Worried Souji decided to take action; he had to find out what the problem was all about and fix it for Kondo-san. As his usual source of information and wise words was lost in Sannan-san, he figured he could only turn to the next best option. He just had to be careful; Hijikata-san would not like him finding out something he was not supposed to know, especially after eavesdropping and Kondo-san would also be very disappointed in him. He sneaked around the house and leaned to the door. Decidedly he knocked on it.

"Hajime-kun? Are you awake?" He said as loudly as he dared. There was no answer and he knocked again "Hajime-kun, if you are pretending to be sleeping, I will just come in anyways" he said.

"Please, go away" Hajime-kun said muffled.

"Lucky, you are awake!" Souji said happily and carefully slid the door open and closed it making sure no one was around.

He heard the rustle of the bedding, guessing it was Hajime-kun turning his back on Souji. It was difficult to see in the dark room, so Souji decided to sneak a bit closer. He was going to need Hajime-kun to cooperate in solving the matter.

"Hajime-kun, I have something I really need to talk to you about" Souji pressed but got ignored. He peeked at Hajime-kun who had pulled to cover up to his face.

"There is no need to be so grumpy just because you were woken up, besides that is rather childish. This is very important" Souji tried.

"I don't care. I am not in the least interested in your meaningless chatter. Go away" Hajime-kun muttered under the cover. Apparently he didn't get as affected from being called childish as he used to. It was rather disappointing to Souji as it had worked even in cases where it had been totally uncalled for. Maybe he had used it too much? He had one time been hit with a book trying to wake Hajime-kun so he didn't want to make the same mistake twice and go too close, but he sat on the floor and leaned over and lowered his voice.

"Something really bad is going to happen. Hijikata-san and Kondo-san are really worried. I want to help them. Do you know anything about it?" He said to the blanket.

"You are not going to go away are you?" Hajime-kun asked.

"Not until you help me" Souji grinned happily. He heard a defeated sigh and victoriously watched as Hajime-kun sat up.

For some reason Hajime-kun looked sleepy and ruffled, but Souji was pretty sure that lack of composedness on the outside was in way of an indication of how quickly he would be hit with a book if he tried his luck too much with Hajime-kun.

"I have no obligation to help you. If there is a problem and we are to know of it, I am sure we would be informed" Hajime-kun said.

"Unless it is to be a big secret" Souji pointed out. Hajime-kun gave him a look as if wondering if Souji really just had to say such an unnecessary and useless thing. Then he gave this sigh that meant he had decided to accept his fate.

"What is it?" Hajime-kun asked. He didn't seem to think there was a need to extend being polite to Souji in the dead of night.

"You smell of sake"

"You smell weird. Have you been to a pharmacy?" Hajime-kun retorted.

"It is long story and totally irrelevant. I don't want to bore you with that. I wanted to ask what you think. I just returned and I passed by Kondo-san's room. It seems Hijikata-san and Sannan-san were there too. They were having a very interesting conversation" Souji said.

"I take it you could not help but over hear by accident. What did they say?" Hajime-kun asked not horribly interested.

Trying to remember as detailed as he could he relayed the conversation from earlier while Hajime-kun was sitting looking less sleepy and tying his hair with a string in front of him.

"That is all? Exactly as you heard it?" Hajime-kun said when Souji finished.

"Yup, that's all"

"I have absolutely no idea what it might be about"

"Oh, come on. You all the time stalk Hijikata-san and listen on things. You are really sure there is nothing you know? I want to help out. I won't do anything unnecessary, I promise" Souji insisted but it seemed Hajime-kun was not really convinced and Souji could not really blame him. Usually he ended up dragging Hajime-kun into all kinds of very unnecessary things.

After awhile Hajime-kun got up, went to the selves in his room and picked up a neat pile of papers. He took the very last of them and came back to Souji.

"This is just a guess, but I think this might have something to do with it" He said and pointed at the paper.

A bit surprised Souji looked at the document. It seemed like a list of names in columns, under various subjects. Souji recognized all the names, they were Shinsengumi members who had been injured or died in service since midsummer.

"What's this?" He asked curious.

"I am starting to think it is what you requested" Hajime-kun said.

"It is names. I want to know what the problem is" Souji said a bit annoyed.

"It is obvious if you look at them and see what connects them. Specific people disappear. I heard a rather interesting piece of news today and it got me thinking about this. Also yesterday you said that you needed some men to go pick up two of our wounded from the Aizu clan doctor. Heisuke said it is lucky, since that is closer than the other clinic in town and that we rarely have to go there. These are the people who either did not disappear because they were not severely enough wounded, these did disappear because they were and perished, these were treated at the Aizu clan and these died" Hajime-kun said pointing at the different names "Look, if you are severely wounded and end up being taken to the Aizu clan's clinic you will have a one in two chance of coming back from there. If you on the other hand are taken to the clinic operated by the Bakufu doctor with very serious wounds, you do not come back" Hajime-kun explained like when he was teaching the men, he paused and looked at the paper "I used to think that, that person, Yukimura-sensei was just a bad doctor, but I doubt it should be such a problem. Obviously they could just stop working with him if that was the case"

"Maybe it is not possible, he is a friend of Sannan-san's after all and hired by the bakufu?"

"That is true. Also I have no evidence to support the suspicion" Hajime-kun said and sat down on his bed "Now go away".


End file.
